The National Weather Service (NWS) made it official Thursday, saying Georgia was hit by a total of 30 tornadoes on April 3 and April 5; one of those tornadoes hit Lumpkin County in North Georgia.
Kyle Thiem, a meteorologist with NWS, admitted that it took the agency longer than usual to evaluate the storm damage.
"Because there were so many [tornadoes] is why it took so long just to get everything together, especially when we had...at tops only about three teams that were able to go out on any particular day," Thiem said in a video statement.
Those teams found evidence of 26 tornadoes from the April 3 storm system, including the one that hit Lumpkin County.
"Nine of which were EF-0s, 15 of which were EF-1s and two of which were EF-2s," Thiem said.
The Lumpkin County tornado was an EF-1 and packed winds as high as 100 mph. Information on the National Weather Service website showed the tornado in Lumpkin County touched down at 12:18 p.m., the seventh tornado recorded that day. It lasted for six minutes and traveled a distance of 4.6 miles.
The website said the tornado developed just east of Highway 19 and Georgia 400 North.
"EF-0 damage in the form of numerous uprooted trees were [sic] found along the majority of Red Oak Flats Road. Shortly thereafter, the tornado strengthened to an EF-1 along a ridgetop northeast of Red Oak Flats Road where significant damage to barns and sheds was found. In addition, damage to a home was found on Dunagan Drive along with numerous large trees uprooted in a local pasture behind the road. The tornado continued along Cleveland Highway for several miles but weakened to an EF-0 at which point it caused damage to numerous trees and the collapse of a large local chicken coop on Francis Smith Road. The tornado lifted quickly after moving east of Francis Smith Road," the statement read.
Thiem said the other tornadoes that touched down Monday were located mostly in south Georgia. NWS teams found evidence of seven tornadoes from April 5 storms.
Despite the large number of tornadoes, only three injuries were reported statewide. Those occurred in an April 3 tornado in Monroe County.
