EF1 Tornado — Carroll, Georgia

2026-01-10 · near Lowell, Carroll, Georgia

Event narrative

A brief tornado touched down just south of Lowell in southern

Carroll County late Saturday morning. The tornado was embedded

within a Quasi-Linear Convective System. Damage was first seen at

a residence near Lake Circle and Staples Dairy Road. A 2-story

home had a good portion of its roof cover pulled up along with the

southwest-facing wall/siding severely damaged. The structure

remained intact. Adjacent to the home, a barn was nearly destroyed

with several 6' x 6' poles ripped out of the ground (secured in

the ground by concrete). Based on this damage, it is estimated the

tornado reached near its peak intensity of 90- 95 mph (EF-1). It

was in this area, a CC drop/TDS on FFC radar occurred. Debris from

the barn was thrown more than 300 yards away. The tornado

continued to track east damaging another barn and uprooting

several trees as it moved across Liberty Church Road. Another

older barn at a residence just east of Liberty Church Road

sustained significant damage, with most of its (sheet-metal) roof

ripped off and walls destroyed. Additional trees were seen

snapped or uprooted at this location and about 1/4 mile downstream

in a wooded area (seen also by drone footage). Beyond this final

point, no notable damage was seen.

Wider weather episode

A QLCS moved into western Georgia during the mid morning hours of the 10th. The strongest storms were located south of I20 with several bowing and comma-head sections which lead to pockets of strong wind damage and a brief tornado in Carrol county. Storms quickly weakened as they moved eastward, as a wedge was in place over northern Georgia.

Storms in north Georgia became nearly stationary ahead of the main line with high proficient rainfall rates along and south of the southern Appalachians. This resulted in areas of flash flooding.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.4539, -85.0480)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1310115. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.