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EF1 tornado in Walton County, Georgia

Tornado August 1, 2018 · Walton County, Georgia

EF1

Rating

0.3 mi

Path length

100 yd

Path width

$200K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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 survey team found that an EF1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 100 MPH and a maximum path width of 100 yards touched down northeast of Social Circle in the 1400 block of Social Circle Fairplay Road. The tornado snapped, uprooted or broke large limbs out of 20 to 30 large trees as it travelled east along the road for nearly a third of a mile. Six homes were damaged, two severely, mainly from falling trees and branches. No injuries were reported. [08/01/18: Tornado #1, County #1/1, EF-1, Walton, 2018:010].

The wider storm

A series of short waves moving across the region in ahead of a deep upper-level trough over the Mississippi Valley brought several rounds of strong to severe thunderstorms to north and central Georgia. Several reports of damaging thunderstorm winds, flash flooding and even two isolated tornadoes were reported.

Began near Herndonville (33.6791, -83.6926).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF0 Jones County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 777815. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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