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EF1 tornado in Randolph County, Georgia

Tornado March 31, 2020 · Randolph County, Georgia

EF1
Rating
30.0 mi
Whole path
200 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$50K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Barbour County, Alabama → Quitman County → Randolph County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The tornado moved across the Chattahoochee River from Alabama and crossed into Georgia along Deer Point Rd. Trees were snapped and a home suffered roof damage along the river. The tornado continued moving east northeast just to the south of Deer Point Rd snapping and uprooting dozens of trees along its path. A home had an outbuilding completely destroyed and a barn was destroyed as well. The tornado continued further into Quitman County eventually crossing HWY 82 where several trees were downed including one that crushed a mobile home. A man in the mobile home was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Damage, consisting of snapped and uprooted trees continued to the east northeast through eastern Quitman County into Randolph County. The last accessible damage was along HWY 27 six miles north of Cuthbert where a few dozen pine trees were snapped and other trees were uprooted. The tornado continued into inaccessible areas further east at this point. The tornado was rated EF1 for Quitman and Randolph counties with max winds estimated at 100 mph.

The wider storm

A strengthening surface low pressure area moved across the Tri-State region. A warm front lifted northward through the area, and a cold front moved through during the afternoon hours. Scattered thunderstorms moved across the area, some of which were severe.

Began near Springvale (31.8497, -84.9087).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 882942. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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