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EF2 tornado in Laurens County, Georgia

Tornado April 5, 2017 · Laurens County, Georgia

EF2

Rating

20.2 mi

Whole path

400 yd

Path width

$170K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 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 survey team found that an EF2 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 115 MPH and a maximum path width of 400 yards touched down in southwestern Laurens County around the intersection of Evan Colter Road and Frog Hollow Road where a house sustained damage and dozens of trees were snapped and uprooted. Just east of this location, a large auto-body repair shop was destroyed along Coleman Register Road some damage occurred to nearby homes. Dozens of trees were also snapped in the area. The tornado continued moving northeast crossing Five Points Road and snapping trees before clipping home along Baker Church road. The second floor on the south side of the house was mostly destroyed. Nearby, a large, triangular radio tower was completely bent over and several outbuildings were completely destroyed. The tornado continued northeast along James Evans Road crossing US Highway 441 snapping trees and damaging the roofs of homes along the way. The tornado continued snapping and uprooting trees as it moved northeast crossing South Poplar Springs Church Road, Greg Couey Road, Hall Road, Captain Debbie Brown Highway, Rock Springs Road and eventually going over a marshy area in eastern Laurens county before crossing into Treutlen County. The team could not access the marshy area between Rock Spring Road and Highway 199 but did find damage to trees along Highway 199 and Thairdell Road indicating a continuous path through the marshy region. The Tornado crossed Mercer Creek into Treutlen County just east of Thairdell Road. No injuries were reported. [04/05/7: Tornado #7, County #1/2, EF-2, Laurens, Treutlen, 2017:066].

The wider storm

Another strong short wave, the second in three days, rotated through a large and deep upper-level trough over the eastern U.S. A deep surface low and strong cold front moved through the state combining with moderate instability and strong low-level shear to produce another round of widespread severe weather across north and central Georgia, including several tornadoes.

Began near Five Points (32.3323, -82.9856).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Stewart County EF1 Coweta County EF1 Newton County EF1 Dooly County EF1 Dodge County EF0 Sumter County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 698347. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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