EF1 tornado in Tift County, Georgia

An EF-1 tornado briefly touched down at the edge of a farm damaging snapping and uprooting trees along the path. Some were peach trees. When the tornado crossed Urbana Road, it blew out part of the foundation of a large garage causing the associated wall to bow outward. There was significant shingle damage to the

roof of this building. A bit further from the road, the tornado moved a large trailer, filled with air conditioning units and estimated to weigh 7000 lb in total, about 3 feet. The metal roof of the structure sheltering this and other vehicles was partially uplifted. The tornado lifted just beyond the edge of the property line. 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.