EF1 tornado in Gilmer County, Georgia

The Gilmer County Emergency Management Director reported and the Cherokee County Emergency Management Director discovered an area of damage in southwest Gilmer county. The Cherokee County Emergency Management Director determined that the damage was the result of an EF1 tornado. The tornado touched down approximately four miles southeast of Carters (in Murray county) in far southwest Gilmer county near Georgia Highway 136. The tornado tracked on the ground, paralleling Georgia Highway 136, in an east-northeastward direction for only 1.5 miles before lifting near the intersection of Camp Branch Road and Georgia Highway 136. The damage path was determined to be 300 yards wide with maximum winds estimated to be 90 mph. The most significant damage resulting from the tornado was to the Shady Grove Church, which sustained minor damage from falling trees. No other structures were damaged. However, a total of at least 100 trees and six power poles were snapped or downed by the tornado.

[12/22/11: Tornado #3, County #1-1, EF1, Gilmer, 2011:029].

A deep trough, quite characteristic of the early winter season of 2011-2012, was anchored across the southwest U.S. with broad southwest flow aloft evident from the southwest U.S. toward the mid-Atlantic. A summer-like Bermuda high pressure area was anchored off the southeast U.S. coast. A stationary front extended across the lower Mississippi valley toward the mid-Atlantic with a cold front approaching from the west of this region from Texas toward the Great lakes. The air mass across the region in advance of the stationary front was extremely moist, warm, and unstable for mid-December. As an embedded strong short wave traversed the region in the southwest flow aloft, a period of strong shear and marginal instability translated across the region during the late afternoon and early evening. These synoptic features supported a strong to severe quasi-linear convective system, or squall line, which moved across the state from west to east during the late afternoon and evening. The line of thunderstorms spawned a half-a-dozen tornadoes causing extensive damage across several counties from west central into northwest and north central Georgia. As the line moved east past Atlanta, it weakened considerably and no further severe weather was observed across east Georgia. The six tornadoes occurring on this date tied the record for the most tornadoes ever occurring during December within the Peachtree City, Georgia county warning area in December, namely six in 2005.