Officials with the National Weather Service in Peachtree City believe that a microburst with strong winds during Monday’s severe thunderstorm are to blame for damage to Lake Lanier marinas.
“There was believed to have a microburst associated with [the storm] where it sent severe winds around 60-70 mph around Lake Lanier,” said Kyle Thiem, a meteorologist with the NWS.
Thiem explained that a microburst occurs when a pool of cooler air above a thunderstorm collapses quickly toward the Earth’s surface and rapidly spreads.
Thiem said that meteorologists determined that the storm developed in the Flowery Branch area before it moved over Lake Lanier.
The amount of damage to property around the lake led some witnesses to believe that a tornado was in the storm, but despite the amount of damage, Thiem said that NWS officials think only the strong winds are to blame.
Some areas of the lake were especially impacted, including Holiday and Aqualand Marinas. Thiem said that NWS officials are still evaluating some damage, but did report that we they had seen so far.
“From the damage that we did see, at least around the Aqualand Marina, we did see quite a bit of damage to the awnings around several of the docks and there were a few docks that were separated,” said Thiem. “A couple of [the docks] were destroyed to where people couldn’t get from the land over to some of the boats that were at the ends of the docks in some instances.”
The NWS issued an official public information statement about the storm late Wednesday afternoon.
