EF0 Tornado — Glascock, Georgia

2009-04-10 · near Gibson, Glascock, Georgia

Event narrative

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that a brief EF0 tornado had touched down just southeast of the city of Gibson and traveled approximately 1000 yards or about 0.6 mile on an east-southeastward track. This tornado was spawned by the same supercell thunderstorm that spawned the earlier EF3 tornado in eastern Hancock county. The tornado was determined to have a maximum path width of 150 yards with maximum winds of 100 mph. A number of large pine trees were uprooted or snapped along the path of the tornado. However, no structural damage was noted as a result of this tornado.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.2286, -82.5960)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 164306. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.