EF1 tornado in Pickens County, Georgia

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City confirmed than an EF1 tornado touched down in Pickens county, approximately one mile northeast of Jasper, near the intersection of Georgia Highay 136 and Old Grandview Road and continued on an eastward approximately 3.5 mile-long path before lifting. The maximum path width was determied to be 440 yards with maximum winds estimated at 90 mph. Damage was greatest along Old Grandview Road near the Grandview community. In this area, at least forty 18-inch and less diameter hardwood trees were either uprooted or snapped along the path of the tornado. A number of power lines were down in the area and several utility poles were snapped. While no direct fatalities or injuries were reported, one person was said to have suffered a heart attack because of anxiety during the event. Only minor structural damage was reported.

A vigorous upper closed low was moving from the mid-south and Mississippi valley region into the mid-Atlantic and southeast U.S. A strong cold front accompanied the upper system. A strong low-level jet in advance of these weather systems transported warm, moist Gulf air northward into the region. With strong dynamics, hence shear, combined with an unusually moist, unstable atmosphere, the atmosphere was primed for a major weather outbreak. One round of thunderstorms passed through north Georgia during the early morning hours. A few minor severe weather events accompanied this system in northwest Georgia. Partial clearing followed the morning convection, allowing temperatures to soar into the mid 70s across much of north and central Georgia in advance of the main weather system. Scattered to numerous discrete supercell thunderstorms developed during mid-afternoon in northwest Georgia and progressed east and southeast across the remaining portions of the county warning area during the evening hours. Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes lingered into the early morning hours of the 11th across the southern counties of central Georgia. During the eight hour period from 5 pm EDT on April 10th to 1 am EDT on April 11th, a total of 14 tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down in north and central Georgia causing millions in damages. While some injuries were observed, no deaths were observed.