Heat — Twiggs, Georgia

2010-07-26 · Twiggs, Georgia

Event narrative

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that a 47-year old female of Jeffersonville passed away from heat exposure. She was found sitting on her unshaded porch outside her home. The temperature in the area that day was already 99 degrees at noon. Subsequent medical examination determined that the individual died from a cardiac event, induced by the intense heat.

Wider weather episode

A hot, very moist, tropical air mass remained in place across the region. The persistent subtropical ridge had shifted just to the southeast of Georgia. A cold front was near the Georgia-Tennessee border. The front, when combined with daytime heating and the very unstable, hot air mass, provided the necessary lift for widespread and numerous showers and thunderstorms. It turned out to be the most active day for severe thunderstorms during the month of July. Many of the storms produced damaging downburst wind gusts, marginally severe hail, and excessive cloud-to-ground lightning. Flash flooding was also observed with a couple of the storms. One early morning isolated storm over Coweta county, just southwest of Atlanta, produced three to four inches of rain in a couple of hours as it persisted over the same areas near Newnan in the very early morning hours after midnight. Flash flooding was again observed later in the day across Gwinnett county northeast of Atlanta.

Lightning was particularly intense with the thunderstorms during the afternoon of the 26th. Gwinnett county emergency management reported 14 house fires, one business fire, and two apartment fires between 430 pm and 8 pm EDT.

In addition to the severe thunderstorms and intense lightning, very hot conditions continued across the area, especially central Georgia. High temperatures in parts of central Georgia reached or exceeded 100 degrees, with heat index values nearing 110 during the afternoon. The intense heat took the life of yet another individual in central Georgia, this time in Twiggs county. A 47-year old female died on her unshaded front porch just outside Jeffersonville, where the temperature at noon was observed to be 99 degrees.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 251107. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.