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EF2 tornado in Columbia County, Georgia

Tornado April 10, 2009 · Columbia County, Georgia

EF2

Rating

6.0 mi

Path length

880 yd

Path width

$1.0M

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 880 yards (0.50 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A supercell tornado tracked across Columbia county from northeast of Harlem through Grovetown damaging many homes and taking down numerous trees and powerlines. Several vehicles were crushed and there were about a dozen minor injuries.

The wider storm

Supercell thunderstorms moved across the CSRA and produced large tornadoes. One tornado tracked across Columbia and Richmond counties then went into Aiken county South Carolina along highway 278. The second tornado tracked across Burke county then into lower Barnwell and Allendale counties in South Carolina. Several homes were destroyed and many had moderate to severe damage. Widespread trees and powerlines were also down. Total damage estimate was 3 million dollars.

Began near Pumpkin Center (33.4690, -82.2630).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

4 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF3 Richmond County EF3 Burke County EF0 McDuffie County EF0 Burke County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 154423. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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