EF1 tornado in Quitman County, Georgia

A strong/cycling tornado crossed into Georgia along the Chattahoochee River, about 2-3 miles south of Lakepoint Resort State Park, causing considerable tree damage along State Hwy 39 in northern Quitman county. The tornado raced east with more trees snapped or uprooted along Hwy 27, just south of CR 10. Based on the surveyable damage (mainly trees), EF-0 to EF-1 damage was noted with max wind speeds estimated around 100 mph. The tornado appeared to briefly weaken near Hwy 27,

but quickly re-intensified as it crossed the Quitman/Stewart county line.

This event featured all modes of severe weather in our forecast area, including 13 tornadoes, numerous reports of straight-line wind damage, and even large hail. The 13 tornadoes consisted of 1 EF3, 2 EF2s, 6 EF1s, and 4 EF0s. This is a very high number of tornadoes for our forecast area for a single event. This compares with 7 tornadoes in the 1/22/17 event, 8 tornadoes in the 1/2/17 event, and 10 tornadoes in the 3/1/07 event. This may have been the most tornadoes for a single event in our area since the Hurricane Ivan tornadoes back in 2004. The synoptic pattern was characterized by a fast-moving upper trough through relatively zonal flow. The forecast area was under the favorable right entrance region of the upper jet with lots of upper level divergence. An 850 mb jet near or in excess of 50 knots was also present, which is another typical ingredient for severe weather in this part of the country in the cool season. Cool season levels of shear (0-1 km shear > 30 knots and 0-6 km shear > 50 knots) were overlaid with moderate levels of instability (SBCAPE 1500 j/kg), as opposed to more typical winter SBCAPE < 500 j/kg. Without this strong low-level jet, the low-level shear values would have been weaker and we would have probably seen less tornadoes.