Tropical Storm — Glascock, Georgia

2008-08-21 to 2008-08-27 · Glascock, Georgia

Wider weather episode

Tropical Storm Fay will be remembered from the catastrophic rainfall that it brought to much of Florida as well as being one of the longer lived tropical systems to affect the U.S. Tropical Storm Fay formed from a tropical wave on August 15th along the east coast of Hispaniola. The storm moved west along the south coast of Cuba before reaching a weakness in the subtropical ridge to its north causing it turn north-northwestward into central Cuba by the 17th. Fay continued to track north-northwest through the Florida straits and Florida Keys on the 18th before turning northeast toward the Florida peninsula. The storm made landfall on August 19th in southwest Florida at Cape Romano as a tropical storm with winds of 60 mph. Fay continued to move very slowly northeast across the central Florida peninsula, well maintaining its strength along the way, reaching the northeast coast of Florida on August 21st. At this point, a strengthening subtropical ridge and surface high over the mid-Atlantic region forced Fay to take a sharp westward turn toward the Florida panhandle. The storm tracked west to west-northwest from the 22nd through the 25th into extreme southeast Louisiana before reaching the western end of the subtropical ridge and an approaching frontal system. Thus, Fay once again turned back toward the northeast across central Mississippi and central/northern Alabama before finally becoming absorbed into the mean flow and a frontal system located across the Tennessee Valley.

The slow movement of Fay and the proximity to the forecast area allowed for Fay's impacts on the Peachtree City forecast area to last several days. Outer rain bands affected the southern parts of the forecast area as early as the 20th. Outer rain bands continued to affect the southern counties as Fay tracked slowly west through the Florida Panhandle the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd. Some of these produced gusty winds and a few trees were blown down in the far southeastern counties, namely Toombs with three downed trees and Emanuel with two downed trees. While no tornadoes occurred at this point, tornado warnings were issued for several counties in the south central and southeast part of the forecast area. Widespread heavy rain also affected the southwest part of the forecast area on the 23rd as the system tracked west across the Florida Panhandle. As Fay stalled across southeast Louisiana on the 24th and began its move back to the northeast on the 25th, outer rain bands and thunderstorms started to move back into the area from the southwest during the afternoon of the 24th. Widespread heavy rain followed on the 25th and 26th, especially across the northwest half of the forecast area. As the remnant center of circulation moved into northern Alabama on the 26th, spiral bands of rotating thunderstorms tracked across north and central Georgia. Six confirmed tornado touchdowns were observed in north central and northeast Georgia as a result of Fay. These were the first tropical storm-related tornadoes to affect the Peachtree City forecast area since Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2008. No lives were lost, but three injuries occurred when one of the associated tornadoes destroyed mobile homes in Jackson county. Two schools and dozens of homes were damaged in Hall county from other Fay associated tornadoes. Estimated combined damages for the five days that tropical storm Fay affected the north and central Georgia area were $1.89 million.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 132237. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.