COWETA COUNTY, Ga. — The National Weather Service has officially classified Sunday morning's storm in Coweta County as an EF-1 tornado.
The weather service says a line of thunderstorms that had originally produced severe weather over Alabama reintensified over areas southwest of Atlanta early Sunday morning, producing a brief EF-1 tornado over southern Coweta County.
Maximum winds with the tornado were clocked at 90 mph. The storm was on the ground for 2.1 miles and at its widest, the storm was about 150 yards wide. It touched down at 4:33 a.m. 1.2 miles east-northeast of Moreland and stayed on the ground until 4:36 a.m., when it lifted 3.3 miles east-northeast of Moreland.
A line of strong storms with little observed lightning moved quickly eastward over west-central Georgia. The line intensified very quickly, producing the tornado near the intersection of Martin Mill Road and Tabby Lynch Road. The tornado traveled just north of due east along Tabby Lynch Road, uprooting and snapping hundreds of large oak, pine and pecan trees.
One of the trees fell on a home on Tabby Lynch Road, causing minor roof damage.
The metal roof came off of a barn, which was peeled off on Tabby Lynch Road.
As the twister moved into the Gordon Oaks Subdivision, with recently constructed 4-and-5 bedroom homes, numerous large trees were snapped and uprooted. One home on Gordon Oaks Way had a 100-foot-tall oak tree which crashed into the master bedroom on the upper floor of a home, causing significant damage.
The tornado moved eastward, knocking down more trees and power poles before it lifted near the 1300 block of Moore Road.
Severe storm images from the weekend of Feb. 23-24, 2019
Some residents interviewed by the weather service's survey team said they were awakened by their phone's wireless emergency alert notifying them of the tornado.
The residents of the home with the damaged bedroom said the tornado struck about 45 seconds after they received the alert, allowing them to seek shelter downstairs with their pets just before it struck.
No one was hurt or killed as a result of Sunday morning's storm.
An EF-1 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale is capable of moderate damage with wind speeds between 86-and-110 mph. In those storms, roofs are severely stripped, mobile homes are overturned or badly damaged. Buildings may lose their exterior doors. Windows and other glass may be broken.
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