EF3 tornado in Polk County, Georgia

A ground and aerial survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, GA in cooperation with the Georgia State Patrol and local emergency managers confirmed that an EF3 tornado had touched down in extreme north central Polk county, just east of the town of Seney near the intersection of Georgia Highway 101 and the Floyd county line. The tornado then tracked approximately 16 miles across extreme northeast Polk, extreme southeast Floyd, and into southern Bartow county before lifting southwest of Cartersville. The tornado had a maximum path width of 1/2 mile with maximum wind speeds estimated at 150 mph. EF3 damage was noted at three locations along the path of the tornado as it tracked across the three counties. The tornado made an approximate 3-mile track across far northern Polk county.

Within Polk county, four homes were destroyed, two sustained major damage, five had minor damage, and 5 others were minimally impacted. All of these were in the far north central and northeast part of the county between Georgia Highway 101 and the Floyd county line where Bon Loop Road intersects the Floyd county line. One fatality and one injury occurred on Bon Loop Road where a home was destroyed. In addition, several county outbuildings, barns, shops, vehicles, one motor home, one travel trailer, one dog kennel business, several fences were heavily damaged. Several livestock were either injured or killed. Hundreds of trees and power lines were down in the area, including several high tension power lines support structures, which were heavily damaged.

The pattern that began to evolve on March 14th continued and intensified on March 15th. A stationary front remained draped across north Georgia from near Atlanta to Athens. South of this front, the air mass was becoming increasingly warm, moist and unstable. Meanwhile, aloft, a low amplitude, yet vigorous short wave embedded within a fast zonal flow, was tracking rapidly eastward from the mid south into the southeast. Strong shear and high helicity combined with the unstable air mass and the frontal boundary to allow repeated severe thunderstorms to develop and track eastward along the boundary across north Georgia. The activity began early in the day as a complex of thunderstorms moved into the area from Alabama and continued until nearly midnight. As the day progressed, especially during the afternoon, the development of the activity gradually progressed further south and by midnight had reached the south and southeast parts of the state. Numerous severe thunderstorms and tornadic supercells were observed throughout the day.

Historical records indicate that this was one of the most significant severe weather days for the Peachtree City Weather Forecast Office with more events and warnings than had been observed since May 2003.