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EF1 tornado in Jackson County, Georgia

Tornado December 29, 2016 · Jackson County, Georgia

EF1
Rating
3.5 mi
Path length
250 yd
Path width
$50K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 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 found that an EF-1 tornado, associated with a nocturnal supercell thunderstorm within a broken line of storms, produced damage south of the city of Jefferson in Jackson County. The damage path began with the snapped trunks of small trees southwest of Jefferson, just north of Lee Street/Winder Highway near the intersection with Highway 129. The tornado moved east-southeast to the intersection of M.L. King Jr. Drive and Magnolia Avenue, uprooting and snapping at least a half dozen tress and overturning a small storage shed at the Paradise AME Church. The tornado then crossed Athens Street and moved along Georgia Bell Drive and Dixie Red Avenue uprooting trees and causing minor damage to several homes in the area. The tornado uprooted trees at the end Meadow Lane and along Jefferson River Road before dissipating just north of the intersection of Jefferson River Road and River Meadows Drive around 3.5 miles from its starting point. The maximum winds speeds within this tornado were estimated to be up to 105 MPH with a maximum path width of 250 yards. [12/29/16: Tornado #1, County #1/1, EF1, Jackson, 2016:013].

The wider storm

A deepening upper-level trough and associated cold front swept across north and central Georgia during the morning. Although instability was limited, strong low and mid-level shear resulted in isolated damaging wind gusts and a tornado.

Began near Red Stone (34.1078, -83.5913).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 666262. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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