EF1 Tornado — Upson, Georgia

2025-06-26 · near Atwater, Upson, Georgia

Event narrative

At approximately 1:10 AM EDT on Thursday June 26, 2025 an EF1

tornado touched down in northern Upson County with maximum winds

of 95-100mph. The tornado developed as a result of 2 colliding

outflow boundaries from storms moving southwest which moved into

Georgia from South Carolina and storms moving north originating

along the Florida gulf coast. The boundaries collided over

northern Upson County and generated enough low level shear that

the storms in the area were able to generate a short lived

tornado. The tornado first touched down in a field west of Day

Road near the intersection of Thompson Road. At the end of the

field was a grove of pine trees with several snapped off where the

tornado crossed into the wooded region. The tornado continued

west through a heavily wooded region before emerging out at

Atwater Road. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted on the east

side of Atwater around 2 homes. A large grove of hardwood trees

were mostly snapped which is where it is presumed the tornado

reached max intensity of 95 to 100mph winds. At approximately 1:10

to 1:11 AM and over this location is when the KFFC radar first

determined the presence of a TDS (tornado debris signature). The

tornado continued moving west along Atwater road snapping and

uprooting trees on both sides of the road. At approximately 1:12

AM the tornado continued west along Weems Road snapping and

uprooting numerous trees on both sides of the road. The TDS

continued through the 1:15 AM scan over a mostly wooded region

west of Weems road where the tornado is presumed lifted at

approximately 1:16AM as a result of no damages being observed west

of the heavily wooded region. The exact end of path is estimated

without an areal survey. We would like to thank Upson County

Emergency Management and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency

for their assistance with the survey.

Wider weather episode

Widespread afternoon and evening diurnal thunderstorms triggered across north and central Georgia. The outflow from these storms was strong enough to continue persistent thunderstorms through the midnight hours with concentrated pockets of wind damage. Two outflow boundaries which collided produced a zipper-like firing of thunderstorms which even produced a brief circulation and subsequent tornado which moved east to west in northwest Upson county.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.9736, -84.3599)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1279415. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.