EF1 Tornado — Sumter, Georgia

2021-08-17 · near Americus, Sumter, Georgia

Event narrative

A National Weather Service survey found that an EF1 tornado with maximum wind Speeds of 95 mph and a maximum path width of 325 yards touched down in a residential area on the northeast side of Americus. Damage began along Pineview Drive, just south of Fire Station #3, where a few smaller trees were snapped or uprooted and a few shingles were pulled off of a house. The tornado rapidly strengthened as it moved north northwest crossing Crawford Street (Highway 49) and moved along Wanda Way and Sharon Drive with numerous medium-sized trees either uprooted or snapped. As the tornado continued northwest, significant damage to trees occurred between Sharon Circle and Pine Avenue. In this area, several homes sustained damage, with several severely damaged by large falling trees. This is where maximum wind speeds were estimated at 95 MPH. Several additional trees were snapped or uprooted along Railroad Street before the tornado dissipated. In all, more than 40 residences sustained some visible damage. No injuries were reported. [8/17/21: Tornado #1, County #1/1, EF-1, Sumter, 2021:015].

Wider weather episode

The remains of Tropical Storm Fred moved across central and north Georgia as a tropical depression during the overnight hours through the morning producing isolated reports of damaging winds in convective bands and several tornadoes. No reports of wind damage were received outside of the stronger convective bands. Rainfall amounts exceeded 4 inches in portions of northeast Georgia, with amounts of 6 to 8 inches observed in the northeast Georgia mountains.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.0775, -84.2087)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 970167. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.