EF1 Tornado — Banks, Georgia

2021-08-17 · near Carlan, Banks, Georgia

Event narrative

A National Weather Service survey found that an EF1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 90 mph and a maximum path width of 100 yards touched down in Banks County along Bennett Road west of Highway 63. The tornado uprooted and snapped trees as it moved northwest along Bennett Road. One home was almost completely destroyed by a falling oak tree. The tornado continued to the Northwest across a landfill before crossing Highway 51 around Damascus Road where numerous trees were snapped or uprooted. Continuing to the Northwest, the tornado crossed Payne Road snapping and uprooting dozens of trees and destroying a chicken house on the north

side of Payne Road. A small trailer was rolled and thrown 30 yards. The tornado was at its strongest along Payne Road before beginning to weaken as it continued moving to the northwest. A tree was blown down into a home along Hawkins Road right before the tornado lifted as it approached Pace and Caudell Roads. [8/17/21: Tornado #7, County #1/1, EF-1, Banks, 2021:021].

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 → (34.3330, -83.4161)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 970170. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.