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EF1 tornado in Talbot County, Georgia

Tornado November 16, 2011 · Talbot County, Georgia

EF1

Rating

61.5 mi

Whole path

880 yd

Path width

Injuries

$9.5M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Macon County, Alabama → Lee County, Alabama → Harris County → Talbot County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 880 yards (0.50 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 the EF1 to EF2 tornado, that first touched down in Macon county Alabama and tracked across all of Harris county, continued into extreme northwest Talbot county before lifting. The tornado tracked on the ground over 33 miles within Alabama, 26 miles within Harris county, and approximately two miles within Talbot county for a total path length of nearly 61 miles. The tornado decreased to an EF1 before it entered Talbot county and the path width decreased to less than 1/2 mile. Damage within Talbot county was confined to several downed trees and power lines in the far northwest part of the county along Old Shiloh Road.

[11/16/11: Tornado #1, County #2-2, EF2, Harris-Talbot, 2011:026].

The wider storm

A sharp and deep negatively tilted full-latitude upper trough was sweeping through the eastern half of the United States. An unseasonably warm, moist air mass was present in advance of the front, as was the case with many events during the 2011 - 2012 winter season. In addition, a strong low-level jet contributed highly to a high shear/high helicity environment and the development of rotating cells within a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) that tracked from west central to east central Georgia during the afternoon. An EF2 tornado tracked from Lee county in east central Alabama into Harris county in west central Georgia. In addition, there were several reports of quarter-sized hail and thunderstorm wind damage, primarily across central Georgia during this event.

Began near Tax (32.8232, -84.6920).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 355131. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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