EF0 tornado in Henry County, Alabama

The tornado touched down in Henry County Alabama in an area just south of Shorterville on Henry County Route 47 between Bennett Mill Creek and Route 188. There were several softwood trees uprooted in this area. The tornado proceeded northeast across the Chattahoochee River into Clay County Georgia. The damage in Clay County Georgia began on Route 39/ Washington Street near the intersection of Blakely and Blufton Highways. There were several softwood trees uprooted in this area, as well as some roofing material removed from the roadway. Additional softwood trees were uprooted at several points between the aforementioned intersection to a point just north of Route 37/ Edison Highway along Wesely Chapel Road. In addition, Center Line Irrigation was also downed near the previously mentioned location.

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.