EF0 tornado in Wilcox County, Georgia

Data gathered from the Wilcox County Emergency Management Director and from a damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia concluded that the EF1 tornado that began in the Cobb community of far southeast Sumter county and tracked east-southeast across Crisp county, continued into far southwest and south central Wilcox county before lifting. The total path length of the tornado was around 33 miles. Damage was sporadic along the path of the tornado. The tornado tracked approximately 12 miles within Wilcox county and remained as a weaker EF0 tornado with a maximum path width of 100 yards and maximum winds of 80 mph. Within Wilcox county, most of the damage was concentrated in the Owensboro area, with just isolated tree damage from Hatley, along the Crisp/Wilcox county line to the west side of Ownesboro. One home at the intersection of County Roads 60 and 61, just southwest of Owensboro, suffered considerable damage. A mobile home was destroyed just east of the intersection of Georgia Highways 233 and 238. Finally, considerable damage was noted to a pecan orchard east of County Road 63 or about one mile east-southeast of Owensboro, near the point where the tornado lifted.

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.