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EF1 tornado in Banks County, Georgia

Tornado November 30, 2016 · Banks County, Georgia

EF1

Rating

2.8 mi

Whole path

100 yd

Path width

$65K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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

A National Weather Service storm survey team found that an EF1 tornado with maximum winds of 90 MPH moved along a path with a maximum width of 100 yards for 0.50 miles across portions of Banks County. The tornado crossed into Banks County from Jackson County along the I-85 frontage road and continued northeast before ending around the intersection of Highway 441 and East Ridgeway Road where a couple of large business signs were blown out. [11/30/16: Tornado #6, County #2/2, EF1, Banks, 2016:012].

The wider storm

A strong cold front associated with a deep and sharp upper-level trough swept through the state accompanied by a line of thunderstorms. Despite only marginal instability; ample deep-layer shear and a strong low-level jet resulted in several reports of damaging winds and tornadoes with these thunderstorms. The early morning hours tornado that occurred in Catoosa County was actually associated with a supercell. The other tornadoes were associated with a Quasi-Linear Convective System (QLCS) during the late morning/afternoon hours of the 30th.

Began near Banks Crossing (34.2529, -83.4695).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

5 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 Cobb County EF1 Fulton County EF0 Catoosa County EF0 Carroll County EF0 Fulton County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 662424. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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