EF0 tornado in Chattahoochee County, Georgia

An aerial and ground survey conducted by the National Weather Service, the Georgia State Patrol, and the Chattahoochee County Emergency Management Director concluded that the EF0 tornado, which originated in Alabama and then crossed into Stewart county, continued into Chattahoochee county just south of Jamestown. The tornado continued on an east-northeastward track across U.S. Highway 27 near Cusseta, and then to the Marion county border at Georgia Highway 137. The tornado path length was over 12 miles long with a maximum path width of 100 yards. Numerous trees and power lines were blown down along the spotty damage path of the tornado. A single-wide mobile home was rolled at a mobile home park community south of Jamestown, but no injuries were reported. Widespread power outages were observed in the Cusseta area.

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.