EF0 tornado in Gilmer County, Georgia

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia in conjunction with the Gilmer County Emergency Management Director confirmed that a second EF0 tornado, again in combination with two brief microbursts, touched down approximately two miles north-northeast of Tails Creek almost simultaneously with the EF1 tornado that touched down southeast of Tails Creek. This tornado also had a path width of 1/2 mile with maximum winds estimated to be 80 mph. This EF0 tornado tracked 1.9 miles east-northeast before lifting. Again, several hundred trees were either blown over, uprooted, or snapped along the path of the tornado. The event likely consisted of two brief tornado segments either side of a longer lasting microburst. Six chicken houses were either destroyed or heavily damaged. A horse stable was also destroyed. Three outbuildings were also heavily damaged. No damage to homes was observed from this tornado.

[04/04-04/05/11: Tornado #2, County #1-1, EF0, Gilmer, 2011:004].

An extremely progressive and highly kinematic upper flow remained in place across the U.S. A deep, full-latitude negatively tilted trough and associated strong Pacific cold front swept through the eastern U.S. April 4th into April 5th. An intense northeast to southwest oriented squall line of thunderstorms accompanied this front. Wind gusts of 60 to 70 mph were common along this line of thunderstorms as it traversed the entire Peachtree City (WFO FFC), Georgia Weather Forecast county warning area. Nearly every county received at least one severe thunderstorm warning during this event and nearly every county experienced extensive wind damage from these thunderstorms. Two brief EF0 tornadoes also occurred with this event in Gilmer county of north central Georgia. Downed trees on homes and vehicles also caused 7 fatalities during this event, the most in any single weather event since the catastrophic floods of late September 2009. Even several hours after the storms had passed, at least 50,000 residents of north and central Georgia remained without power.