EF1 tornado in Carroll County, Georgia

A survey conducted by the National Weather Service in Peachtree City, Georgia and the Carroll County Emergency Management Director confirmed that an EF1 tornado touched down in the southern Carroll county, four miles southwest of Lowell and tracked northeast, lifting approximately one mile northeast of Lowell. A single family home and a mobile home sustained major damage and another single family home sustained minor damage. Several barns and outbuildings were also damaged. Numerous trees and several power lines were blown down along the path of the tornado. The heaviest damage occurred on Ringer Road, Clem-Lowell Road, Miligan Creek Road, and Hamp Chappell Road. A total of three roads were blocked from downed trees. Much of this area of the county was left without power for several hours following the tornado.

An intense closed upper low was rotating negatively from the southern plains toward the Ohio Valley. A strong cold front in advance of this system was moving across Mississippi into Alabama during the evening of the 17th. A wedge cold front was located across north and central Georgia. Very warm, unstable air was present across southern Alabama and southern Georgia, south of the wedge front. While only marginal instability was present, very strong shear was noted with a 60-70 knot low-level jet evident across Alabama and western and central Georgia. These systems combined to bring a strong squall line of thunderstorms to west and north Georgia during the mid and late afternoon hours. Most of the damage associated with this line of thunderstorms was straight-line wind damage. However, an isolated embedded EF1 tornado within a quasi-linear convective system did occur in west central Georgia in Carroll county. Meanwhile, along the southern end of the convective line, a long-lived supercell tracked from southern Alabama into southwest Georgia, south of Columbus, and continued on a near 100-mile track across west central and central Georgia from just south of Fort Benning to just northeast of Macon. Multiple tornadoes, ranging in strength from EF0 to EF1 were reported within broken segments along the track of this supercell, resulting in considerable damage to trees, power lines, and property. Several injuries were reported during the stronger portion of the tornadic supercell in Taylor and Crawford counties, southwest of Macon.