Mother’s Day Tornadoes Pound Georgia
The Mother’s Day weekend storm brought late-season weather misery to much of the country over the weekend, and continues to cause trouble in the Northeast US. And, it looks like the rainy weather is likely to continue.
The storm initially caused tornadoes in Oklahoma and Missouri before moving into Georgia early Sunday morning. The Atlanta area was placed under a tornado watch as early as Saturday afternoon and the storms struck overnight, with two EF2 tornadoes striking in Carroll and Douglas counties shortly after 4 AM. It had a 25 mile long path, and caused large scale property damage.
An hour later, a third tornado tore into Clayton county near I-675. Also an EF2, this storm had a 13 mile track into Henry, Rockdale and Newton counties with wind speeds of up to 130 MPH. Further south, yet another EF2 tornado caused considerable damage in the city of Macon when it went through Bibb and Twiggs counties, including destroying two businesses and creating a lot of damage at Macon State College.
The fifth tornado caused one death and three injuries as it moved through Laurens county north of Dublin around 6:30 AM. It destroyed several mobile homes in its seven mile path. It was also an EF2. Another tornado touched down near Vidalia around 7:30 AM, and the Weather Service thinks that more tornadoes may have touched down elsewhere in the state.
After causing so much damage, the storm left the area, moving north. In its place, high pressure rushed in, bringing 30 MPH winds to the Atlanta area and causing at least one fatality in Gwinnett when the top of a tree snapped, killing a woman in Duluth. The storm is tearing through the Mid-Atlantic states today, bringing late season snow to central Pennsylvania, causing power outages in New Jersey along with gale force winds that could be compared to what one would see in a tropical storm. Intense flooding and 50 MPH winds were common in Delaware.
Another round of severe weather is possible again this weekend, beginning on Wednesday as a front moves into Georgia and then stalls south of Atlanta–eerily similar to what we saw last Friday. By Thursday, the Storm Prediction Center is calling for a better than 30% chance of severe thunderstorms lasting into the evening. The storms could stick around through the weekend, causing problems for the AT&T Classic in Duluth.
Despite causing angst for golf fans, the wet weather will be keeping the drought at bay. We’ve already had more rain this month than all of May last year, and with storms predicted for the next two weekends, we’re likely to end up with near-normal precipitation for the fourth month in a row. The Weather Service has officially acknowledged that the La Nina conditions are dissipating and should be gone by midsummer, which also bodes well for normal rainfall.
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May 26th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
i saw hail and a tornado