EF1 tornado in Miller County, Georgia

An EF1 tornado with maximum winds of 100 mph initially touched down west of US-27 in Miller County near Brinson Road. Damage west of US-27 included a center pivot irrigation system overturned. One home in the area was blown off cinder blocks.

Another home had roof damage where a corner of the roof was peeled off. A portion of the wall of this home was blown out. The tornado crossed US-27 and east of the highway destroyed a small modular home. This home had tie-downs to a cinder block

foundation. The home was blown 60 ft to the south and destroyed. The occupant suffered serious injuries. As the tornado continued moving eastward, several trees were snapped or uprooted, with another pivot irrigation system overturned. The tornado lifted before Babcock Lake Road. Damage cost was estimated.

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.