EF1 tornado in Sumter County, Georgia

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that a brief EF0 tornado touched down in western Sumter county near the Experimental Station on U.S. Highway 280, approximately one mile northeast of Plains, and tracked about one mile to the east-southeast before lifting. The tornado was determined to have a maximum path width of 200 yards with maximum winds estimated at 100 mph. Wind equipment at the Plains Research Center measured a wind gust of 110 mph as the tornado passed nearby. This was the second of three tornadoes to affect Sumter county during the late evening of April 10th and the early morning hours of April 11th. Damage along the tornado path was spotty with many downed trees.

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.