EF0 tornado in Fayette County, Georgia

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City confirmed that a brief EF0 tornado affected far north Fayette county. The tornado touched down near Lees Mill Road just west of Georgia Highway 92 and traveled northeast about one mile before lifting just northeast of the end of Hill Road. Approximately 50 trees and six power poles were downed or snapped along the path of the tornado, especially along Hill Road. One home on Hill Road lost several shingles, a few gutters, and a portion of the flashing on its roof. A wooden fence was also destroyed at the same property from downed trees. WSR-88D also indicated that the circulation that spawned this tornado was likely associated with the same circulation that earlier spawned an EF1 tornado in Coweta county.

[12/22/11: Tornado #6, County #1-1, EF0, Fayette, 2011:032].

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.