Tornado Central

Georgia is the Nation's Tornado Leader in 2017,Setting a New State Record

By Jonathan Belles and Jon Erdman

May 26,2017

Georgia Search and Rescue team members enter the Big Pine Estates in Albany,Ga. Monday,Jan. 23,2017,to look for survivors who may still be trapped as well as victims of the tornadoes that hit the Albany area the day before.
(Colin Hackley / www.weathernow24.com)

Georgia is the U.S. state with the most tornadoes so far in 2017 and has set a new state record,according to preliminary data.

Through May 25, 102 tornadoes were estimated to have touched down in the Peach State this year,according to data compiled by Weather Now 24 severe weather expert Dr. Greg Forbes and National Weather Service damage survey results from this past week.

This included a two-day state-record outbreak of 41 tornadoes Jan. 21 and 22,which was one of the most prolific winter outbreaks on record.

The first week of April was active,with one outbreak on April 3,which had 27 tornadoes in Georgia,and another on April 5,which had seven tornadoes.

That helped set a new April record for Georgia,with 35 confirmed tornadoes,according to Jordan McLeod of the Southeast Regional Climate Center. McLeod said it tops an infamous record from April 2011,which had 23 tornadoes in the Peach State.

Over a 20-year period from 1996 to 2015,Georgia averaged 30 tornadoes a year,19th among all states both in the number of tornadoes and tornado density (per unit area), according to Dr. Forbes.

Assuming these preliminary counts hold,this will be a record year for tornadoes in Georgia. The current record for the state was 86 tornadoes in 2008. Through May 25,2008,there were only 71 tornadoes in the state,including the infamous Downtown Atlanta EF2 tornado of March 14,2008,which occurred during the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament.

According to USTornadoes.com,we're through the most active months for tornadoes in Georgia – March and April – which each average just under five tornadoes. A typical year averages another 14 tornadoes in the Peach State from June through December.

Georgia's tornado count,so far,is slightly higher than Texas (98),typically the nation's tornado leader by raw numbers. More than four times the area of Georgia,Texas typically picks up more than quadruple the number of tornadoes in a given year (138) than Georgia (30).

Rounding out the top five tornado states so far in 2017 are Missouri (69),Louisiana (64) and Mississippi (50).

Additionally,almost half of the U.S. tornado deaths this year,so far,have occurred in Georgia. As of May 25,34 U.S. fatalities have been attributed to tornadoes in 2017. Sixteen of those occurred in South Georgia in a pair of tornadoes during the Jan. 21-22 outbreak. Since that outbreak,there have been no tornado-related deaths in the state.