EF1 tornado in Chatham County, Georgia

A National Weather Service storm survey team confirmed that an EF1 tornado occurred in Chatham County near Garden City. The tornado began near the intersection of Seaboard Coastline Drive and Telfair Road. At this location, damage was mainly limited to some snapped trees and minor wind damage to the bottom skirts of some mobile office trailers. The tornado continued northward with the next damage area along Alfred Street, just east of Market Street. At this location there were some snapped trees and minor damage to the wall of one home, which was partially blown down, causing the garage door to blow out. From this point, the tornado moved northward producing sporadic, non-continuous damage. About one third of a metal roof of an industrial building just north of Market Street was damaged. Next, the tornado moved toward the more industrial and commercial area just south of Highway 80, where it did significant damage to an Advanced Auto Parts store. Three walls collapsed and the roof was heavily damaged and shifted halfway off the remaining rear wall. At this point, the tornado had its strongest winds, estimated to be around 110 mph. The rating was capped at a high end EF1 due to the lack of damage or much less significant damage to structures immediately around the store. There were also five people injured inside the Advanced Auto Parts store, and at least 5 cars were heavily damaged from the front wall of the store falling on them. The tornado continued to do very sporadic and more minor damage as it moved north of Highway 21, finally terminating at the Port of Savannah-Garden City. At the port, it pushed over some shipping containers and did minor damage to some container tanks in the area. The tornado then moved into the Savannah River and dissipated.

A strong line of thunderstorms developed in the afternoon hours well ahead of a cold front to the west. Large scale forcing was strong and the near storm environment was supportive of severe thunderstorms, with some embedded supercell thunderstorms. Damaging wind gusts occurred as well as a tornado in the Garden City area of Chatham County.