Thunderstorm Wind — Jeff Davis, Georgia

2021-12-30 · near Roper, Jeff Davis, Georgia

Event narrative

Multiple reports of damage near the intersection of Preston Long road, Elizabeth Church road and US 221 N Highway. Multiple large hardwood trees were uprooted. A roof deck was uplifted from a house and lost a significant amount of roof covering material. The fast food restaurant next to the house also lost roof covering but around less than 20 percent. Another house across US 221 N HWY had broken glass in its windows and doors. Also, a manufactured home had damage to its skirting. It was also reported that a home owner's chicken pen and trampoline were blown away from his yard during the severe thunderstorm and weren't recovered.

Wider weather episode

A broken prefrontal squall line shifted southward into the Ocmulgee and Altamaha River basins during the afternoon and early evening hours. Warm, moist southwesterly flow ahead of the line increased low-level moisture and destabilized the area with afternoon surface-based CAPE around 1000 J/kg and dew points near 70 degrees. The cold front and upper trough approached from the northwest increasing 0-6 km shear to around 40-50 knots with an area of 0-3 km SRH near 200 m2/s2 west-northwest of Waycross, GA. These convective ingredients allowed for a few strong to severe thunderstorms to develop and produce damaging winds and a brief tornado. A severe thunderstorm moving through southern Jeff Davis county produced an EF1 intensity tornado that formed south of Denton, GA. The tornado tracked east-northeastward around 25 mph through Jeff Davis county before dissipating as soon as the severe thunderstorm moved into Appling county.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.8131, -82.6569)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 994806. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.