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EF2 tornado in Early County, Georgia

Tornado January 2, 2017 · Early County, Georgia

EF2

Rating

19.6 mi

Whole path

500 yd

Path width

$1.1M

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 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

An EF2 tornado with max winds near 120 mph touched down just west of Highway 45 north of Billy Newberry Road. The tornado lifted just north of Newton Road. There was significant tree damage along with some structural damage along the periphery of the path. Damage was estimated.

The wider storm

Multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms affected the region to start the year. Two day rainfall totals in excess of 8 inches were common across portions of the Florida panhandle with several roads flooded. Severe weather, including tornadoes and significant straight line wind damage, also occurred across the tri-state area with most of it in southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia. Albany was particularly hard hit with significant wind damage. There were a total of 5 fatalities across the tri-state area from straight line winds. There was also 1 fatality in Florida due to river flooding.

Began near Rowena (31.3690, -84.7196).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Miller County EF1 Dougherty County EF1 Seminole County EF1 Mitchell County EF0 Calhoun County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 670343. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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