Thunderstorm Wind — Treutlen, Georgia

2011-03-26 · near Lothair, Treutlen, Georgia

Event narrative

The Treutlen County 911 Center and the public reported considerable wind damage in the Lothair community in the southwest part of the county. Most of the damage was along Rosemont Church Road. Here, two barns were destroyed, one of which was a 3-sided barn with a metal roof. The other, a large barn, completely lost its metal roof. Three homes had sustained moderate roof damage, and a mobile home sustained serious damage. On Georgia Highway 46, one home sustained major roof damage and broken windows from large hail. Many large trees were either blown down, splintered, or uprooted from Lothair to Soperton. Some roadways were blocked from downed trees.

Wider weather episode

A quasi-stationary frontal boundary extended from north Texas to north Georgia early on the 26th. The front took two to three days to move from north Georgia southward to the Gulf Coast. The upper flow was highly zonal, but embedded with numerous vigorous short waves. An unseasonably warm, unstable air mass presided south of the frontal boundary. Numerous areas and complexes of thunderstorms developed in waves repeatedly along the front boundary and plagued north and central Georgia for two to three days. Many counties across the area were impacted by golf ball and larger hail. There was one report of hail over four inches in diameter in west central Georgia near Newnan. While hail was the predominate severe weather type with this outbreak, there were several reports of damaging winds and even one tornado in central Georgia. In addition, there were several lightning incidents as many of the storms produced intense cloud-to-ground lightning.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.3500, -82.6500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 289976. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.