EF1 tornado in Atkinson County, Georgia

The tornado started in extreme northern Atkinson County and continued to track NE at 50 mph crossing over into Coffee County and lifting near the Mora Highway where the most damage occurred. The tornado tracked NE for about 1.6 miles in Atkinson County where it produced EF1 damage along Ice Plant Road to trees. As Ice Plant Road merged into Talmadge McKinnon Road in Atkinson county, there were a couple of outbuildings that were demolished and debris blown into a pine stand which was also heavily damaged. A residence at this intersection had extensive tree damage, including one pine tree that impaled a vehicle. Numerous agricultural structures including silos and elevated irrigation systems where lofted and carried across pastures along Talmadge McKinnon Road northward toward the Coffee County Line.

An exceptionally rare high risk of severe storms was issued for the local forecast area with extremely strong shear including a 70 kt 850 mb jet combined with an anomalously deep mid level trough across the Gulf Coast region pumped Gulf of Mexico moisture and instability across the area head of a potent storm system. Two waves of severe storms moved across the forecast area, once during the pre-dawn and early morning hours across SE GA, then another squall line of discrete supercells and leading supercells across both SE GA and NE FL in the afternoon and evening. Three tornado touchdowns were confirmed in SE GA during this time period with 1 fatality in Columbia county Florida due to a tree falling on a mobile home. This was a very unusual strong storm system that brought all modes of severe weather to the Jacksonville Forecast area.