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EF1 tornado in Newton County, Georgia

Tornado October 10, 2020 · Newton County, Georgia

EF1
Rating
1.4 mi
Path length
75 yd
Path width
2
Injuries
$250K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 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

A National Weather Service survey team found that an EF1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 90 mph and a maximum path width of 75 yards travelled 1.43 miles across parts of Newton County on the west side of Covington. The tornado first touched down near the intersection of Washington Street and Walker Bend Parkway and moved northwest, ending just south of I-20 along Woodhaven Drive. The tornado produced some tree and structural damage with the most serious and extensive damage occurring along Turner Lake Circle at a homeless shelter where portions of the roof and walls of the building were damaged. Two people suffered minor injuries. [10/10/20: Tornado #1, County #1/1, EF-1, Newton, 2020:028].

The wider storm

During the afternoon and evening of October 10th, as the remnants of Hurricane Delta passed northwest of Georgia, moisture from the Gulf of Mexico spread across the area. Several weak tornadoes occurred in north and central Georgia in addition to pockets of heavy rainfall and flooding across the Atlanta metropolitan area and portions of northeast Georgia.

Began near Covington (33.5870, -83.8770).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

6 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 919438. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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