EF1 Tornado — Harris, Georgia

2024-05-27 · near New Hope, Harris, Georgia

Event narrative

A tornado occurred over mainly rural areas of northwest Harris

County around midday on Monday (Memorial Day), May 27th. Along

and just to the east of Pine Lake Road, debris from trees was

scattered around near a residence (1660 Pine Lake Road). A

tornado debris signature (TDS) was noted (from KFFC radar) around

this area which supports the tree damage. The storm/tornado

continued its track east-southeast with trees snapped or uprooted

along GA Hwy 219 near mile marker 14. This is just west of I-185,

again in a very rural area. Another brief TDS was noted (from

KMXX radar) near Hawks Road just west of a high-tension power

line region that runs north-to-south across the area. EM

officials traveled via ATVs in this area and noted a significant

number (greater than 30) trees either snapped or uprooted. Little

damage was noted on the east side of this area and radar shows

the circulation quickly dissipating after 1612z. Based on the

number and magnitude of tree damage, we are estimating max winds

of 90 MPH which would make this an EF-1 tornado.

Wider weather episode

A line of thunderstorms moved across North and Central GA. Storms first started in Northeast GA during the morning hours and moved to the Southeast through the afternoon. Storms mostly posed a damaging wind threat, however a few storms were able to utilize interacting outflow boundaries to form a couple quick spin-up tornados.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.7832, -85.0585)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1187994. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.