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EF1 tornado in Cobb County, Georgia

Tornado March 2, 2012 · Cobb County, Georgia

EF1

Rating

1.4 mi

Path length

150 yd

Path width

$75K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 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

An EF-1 tornado with a maximum wind speed of 100 MPH touched down in Cobb County around 9:14 PM near East Cobb Park along Roswell Road. It continued to track along Roswell Road where it caused roof damage to a daycare and a house near Providence Road. Minor tree and roof damage continued just north of Roswell Road and ended near the Indian Ridge Subdivision around 9:15 PM. The path length was just over a mile with a maximum width of 150 yards.

[03/02/12: Tornado #2, County #1-1, EF1, Cobb, 2012:006].

The wider storm

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.

Began near Mt Bethel (33.9798, -84.4608).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF3 Haralson County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 365185. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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