EF0 tornado in Stewart County, Georgia

An aerial survey conducted by the National Weather Service and the Georgia State Patrol determined that a tornado, which moved out of Russell county Alabama, continued into far northwestern Stewart county. While the tornado was rated an EF2 in Russell county Alabama, it weakened to an EF0 tornado as it crossed into far northwest Stewart county just northwest of Omaha. It then paralleled the Chattahoochee River and the Alabama border for over nine miles before finally crossing into Chattahoochee county. The path width was estimated to be 50 yards wide. Damage was minimal and confined mainly to downed trees and a few power lines. One county vehicle was damaged near Omaha when a tree fell on it. Much of the track of the tornado remained within swamp land along the Chattahoochee River.

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.