EF0 tornado in Taylor County, Georgia

An aerial and ground survey conducted by the National Weather Service, the Georgia State Patrol, and the Taylor County Emergency Management Director confirmed that the EF0 tornado, that originated in Alabama, crossed into Stewart county at 455 pm EST, Chattahoochee county at 505 pm EST, and then Marion county at 526 pm EST, continued into Taylor county, entering the county just south of Mauk at the intersection of the county line and Georgia Highway 127/240C. The tornado then continued on an east-northeastward track across the county, exiting into Crawford county where the county line and Georgia Highway 137 intersect, east of Flickling Mill. The tornado passed about three miles northeast of the county seat of Butler where two mobile homes off Georgia Highway 137 on Wainwright Road were destroyed and three others were heavily damaged. Numerous trees and power lines were downed along the spotty damage path produced by the tornado. Several reports of funnel clouds and rotating wall clouds were received from storm spotters and the public in the Howard 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.