EF1 tornado in Laurens County, Georgia

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that an EF1 tornado touched down in northeast Laurens county, approximately 1.8 miles west of Brewton, then traveled 3.5 miles to the east, lifting approximately 1.7 miles east of Brewton. The tornado had a maximum path width of 500 yards with maximum winds estimated to be 90 mph. Thirty structures were damaged along the path of the tornado, mostly residential homes. The damage was mostly the result of large trees blown down onto the structures. A few homes sustained minor roof and siding damage independent of the downed trees. A front porch was also blown off one of the homes. Several hundred trees were blown down, snapped, or uprooted along the path of the tornado.

[03/26-03/27/11: Tornado #2, County #1-1, EF1, Laurens, 2011:002].

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.