EF1 Tornado — Crawford, Georgia

2008-02-17 · near Roberta, Crawford, Georgia

Event narrative

An aerial and ground survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office of Peachtree City, Georgia and the Georgia State Patrol concluded that the same supercell thunderstorm that spawned a tornado in Alabama, tracked across Stewart, Chattahoochee, Marion, and Taylor counties, continued into Crawford county. The tornado entered the county five to six miles southwest of Roberta, tracked just north of downtown Roberta, crossed U.S. Highway 341 and continued to a point approximately four miles northeast of Roberta, where it finally lifted. The tornado reached its strongest intensity while passing through Crawford county as an EF1. The damage path was about 10 miles long and at various points along the path was 250 yards wide. Significant damage was reported across the county as a result of the tornado. The tornado destroyed nine structures and damaged three others, most of which were manufactured homes. The most significant damage occurred along Walker Chapel Road and Felton Road, southwest of Roberta, and northeast of Roberta along Salem Church Road. Six injuries, two of which were critical, were reported from the damaged mobile homes in the area of Felton Road. Numerous trees and power lines were downed along the path of the tornado as well, particularly along Georgia Highway 137/128 southwest of Roberta. While the supercell continued into Bibb county, the survey concluded that there was no conclusive evidence that the tornado remained on the ground into Bibb county.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.6586, -84.0930)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 79540. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.