EF2 tornado in Coffee County, Georgia

A supercell thunderstorm crossed the southern tier of Coffee county and produced a tornado that impacted SW Douglas. Initial debris included large snapped trees and begin near Hebron Church, south of GA Highway 158 in Willacoochee, GA. The most extensive damage occurred in Baymeadows Estates, a community where numerous homes suffered wind and tree damage consistent with low-end EF2 tornado damage. The tornado maintained an ESE heading and impacted the Bear Creek mobile home community where numerous pine trees were snapped. The damage path consisted of snapped trees eastward and ended near Carver Baptist Church. Peak winds were estimated at 116 mph.

A potent storm system developing over the lower MS River Valley tracked eastward across the Gulf Coast States and brought a couple rounds of severe storms to the local area. The first wave of strong to severe storms approached SE GA midday with strong shear and high low level helicity favoring all severe weather hazards including damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes. This initial band of convection stalled just north of the I-10 corridor and lingered into the afternoon as the first mid level trough lifted NE of the region. This lingering convergent line (outflow boundary) was a focus for continued rounds of severe storms and locally heavy rainfall under strengthening upper level divergence and robust 850 mb winds of 40-50 kts as the parent mid/upper level troughs approached from the west into the evening. The next wave of severe storms developed in the late afternoon and early evening along both the lingering trough/outflow axis across NE FL was well as upstream across south GA as the next strong upper level trough approached, which another round of severe hazards including tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail across SE GA and northeast Florida into the evening. Storms generally weakened a few hours after midnight as stronger dynamics lifted NE of the region, but a few stronger storms during the early morning hours of the 25th produced a brief tornado in Flagler county and hail across our southern tier counties.