EF2 tornado in Paulding County, Georgia

The Haralson County tornado entered northwest Paulding County near Yorkville around 8:28 PM. Numerous roads were closed due to debris. Three miles south of Yorkville there was an overturned RV, and a box truck was impaled by a 2-by-4. A residential neighborhood was hit, damaging several homes and destroying one. The most significant damage occurred at the new Paulding County Regional Airport, where maximum wind speeds were estimated at near 135 MPH. A hangar was destroyed and 19 of 23 planes were totaled, including a Citation jet. Damage was sustained to the terminal and other airport property, such as fences and lamp posts, as well. East of the airport, a church lost its roof. Poole Elementary School had a partial roof failure and at least one wall blown out. The portion of the roof that blew off was found across the campus. Six modular classrooms were destroyed as well. Additional homes were damaged as the tornado continued east, finally lifting near McClure Trail and McClure Drive around 8:50 PM. The Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported that in Paulding County, 92 homes sustained minor damage, 58 sustained moderate damage, and 10 were destroyed. The total path length for both counties was 29 miles.

[03/02/12: Tornado #1, County #2-2, EF2, Paulding, 2012:005].

The cold front that stalled across central Georgia on March 1st began advancing back north as a warm front the morning of March 2nd. A secondary, and stronger, cold front moved across the Tennessee Valley late on Friday, advancing into Georgia Friday evening and into central Georgia early Saturday morning. Very warm and moist air ahead of the cold front provided for sufficient instability to produce widespread strong to severe thunderstorms across the region. One supercell produced two tornadoes in north Georgia - an EF3 in Haralson and Paulding Counties and an EF1 in Cobb County. Large hail, damaging winds, and flash flooding also occurred with these storms.