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EF1 tornado in Gilmer County, Georgia

Tornado January 30, 2013 · Gilmer County, Georgia

EF1

Rating

11.8 mi

Whole path

300 yd

Path width

Injury

$185K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Gilmer County → Fannin County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 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 touched down off of Chapman Drive and snapped or uprooted hundreds of softwood and hardwood trees as it moved northeast. Eight power poles were snapped in the Bushyhead Road area. Up to 12,000 people were without power. Maximum wind speeds in Gilmer County were up to 90 MPH. The tornado then moved into Fannin County.

[01/30/13: Tornado #2, County #1-2, EF1, Gilmer-Fannin, 2013:002].

The wider storm

A very large storm system approached the state on the 30th. A highly amplified upper trough over the plains pushed east during the day, dragging a strong cold front through the Southeast. A squall line associated with the cold front pushed into northwest and west central Georgia during the mid-morning hours, and pushed through the rest of the state through the afternoon and evening. Widespread wind damage occurred with this line as it moved through. Additionally, a supercell thunderstorm ahead of the line spawned two tornadoes; a rare January EF-3 across Bartow and Gordon Counties and an EF-1 across Gilmer and Fannin Counties.

Began near Ai (34.8171, -84.4279).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Bartow County 1 dead

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 428268. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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