EF1 Tornado — Toombs, Georgia

2024-05-09 · near Vidalia, Toombs, Georgia

Event narrative

Continuation of tornado from Montgomery County.

As the tornado entered the city of Vidalia, trees and powerlines

were downed throughout the city, particularly south of the

downtown area in the 7th to 9th street area along Adams street.

In the downtown area, a roof off of one of the buildings along

Church street was peeled off and thrown into the parking areas

below. The tornado continued ESE crossing Center Dr, Estroff Dr,

Aimwell Rd, and through the Cambridge Ct region where EF1 damage

to trees and homes was observed all along that route. The

tornado continued eastward crossing the Vidalia airport property.

It should be noted that the last observation from the Vidalia

airport occurred 10 min prior to the tornado crossing through.

The tornado continued eastward toward the Lyons community and

across the Lyons Elementary, Middle and High school complexes.

Minor, EF0 damage was observed in and around the schools mostly

to trees, fences, and to doors on some storage buildings. The

tornado continued east crossing Hwy 1 downing a few pecan trees

and numerous limbs before dissipating as it approached hwy

280 southeast of Lyons. Additional straight line wind damage was

observed south of the path including in the community of Santa

Claus.

Wider weather episode

Several waves of severe thunderstorms moved through the area from the evening hours of the 8th through the early afternoon hours of the 9th. Initial convection ahead of the first line was able to tap into ample shear to produce tornadic thunderstorms in Northwest GA. This threat transitioned more into a wind event as the first line moved through the morning of the 9th. This line continued southward into the metro causing sporadic wind damage. Thunderstorms weakened as they moved south of I20, however another line of severe made its way out of AL/TN, producing further wind damage in the North. The initial line slowly moved into the southern portion of the CWA where conditions were not as worked over and shear was stronger. Storms re-strengthened, with several producing brief tornados.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.2190, -82.4420)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1186087. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.