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EF2 tornado in Meriwether County, Georgia

Tornado March 18, 2013 · Meriwether County, Georgia

EF2

Rating

13.3 mi

Whole path

300 yd

Path width

$285K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Meriwether County → Pike 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 EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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

A National Weather Service storm survey determined that an EF2 tornado with wind speeds up to 120 MPH touched down near Rocky Mount Road and Caldwell Road in Meriwether County. IT traveled east to southeast before lifting one mile west of Concord in Pike County. Total path length was 13.35 miles and up to 300 yards wide. In Meriwether County, thousands of trees were either blown over or snapped, with some falling on homes.

[03/18/13: Tornado #1, County #1-2, EF2, Meriwether-Pike, 2013:004].

The wider storm

A strong upper level system combined with a moist south to southeast flow, moderate instability, a cold pool aloft, and enhanced surface convergence along and ahead of an approaching cold front moving through the Deep South. This combination of parameters resulted in widespread severe weather across northwest, west central, and central Georgia including damaging winds, large hail, and a tornado. A wedge of cold air was in place across northeast Georgia, which acted to stabilize this area with only isolated reports of severe weather. The bulk of the severe weather was concentrated along a zone just to the south and west of the wedge front, where instability and low-level shear were maximized.

Began near Rocky Mt (33.1437, -84.6765).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 436984. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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