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EF1 tornado in Banks County, Georgia

Tornado August 17, 2021 · Banks County, Georgia

EF1
Rating
5.7 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
$100K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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 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].

The wider storm

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.

Began near Carlan (34.3330, -83.4161).

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 970170. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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