TornadoLookup

Home / Georgia / Dodge

EF2 tornado in Dodge County, Georgia

Tornado April 5, 2011 · Dodge County, Georgia

EF2
Rating
3.1 mi
Path length
50 yd
Path width
1
Death
2
Injuries
$150K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that an EF2 tornado tracked across northern Dodge county. The tornado touched down approximately 10 miles northwest of Eastman near Friendship UMC Road, just outside the Gresston community, and traveled east-northeast to near the intersection of Friendship UMC Road and U.S. Highway 23. The maximum path width was determined to be 50 yards wide with maximum winds of 130 mph. At the initial touch down location of the tornado, a double-wide mobile home was completely destroyed. A 45-year old male who resided in this mobile home, was killed. Two other residents of the home suffered injuries. Several trees nearby were also blown over or uprooted. Further east near the end of the tornado's path, another mobile home had its roof and front porch destroyed.

[04/04-04/05/11: Tornado #4, County #1-1, EF2, Dodge, 2011:006].

The wider storm

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.

Began near Dubois (32.2846, -83.3234).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

3 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 295351. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.