EF1 tornado, Lowell, Georgia, January 10, 2026

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

January 10, 2026

Touchdown

10:54 AM EST (15:54 UTC)

Lifted

11:01 AM EST (16:01 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.7 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Carroll County

Touchdown point

33.454, -85.048

Lift-off point

33.455, -85.030

Highest wind the damage implies

95 mph

Surveyed by

NWS FFC

Survey last edited

January 11, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

A brief tornado touched down just south of Lowell in southern Carroll County, late Saturday morning. The tornado was embedded within a line of showers and isolated thunderstorms (also referred to as a Quasi-Linear Convective System). Damage was first seen at a residence near Lake Circle and Staples Dairy Road. A 2-story home had a good portion of its roof cover pulled up along with the southwest-facing wall/siding severely damaged. The structure remained intact. Adjacent to the home, a barn was nearly destroyed with several 6' x 6' poles ripped out of the ground (secured in the ground by concrete). Based on this damage, it is estimated the tornado reached near its peak intensity of 90-95 mph (EF-1). It was in this area, a CC drop/TDS on FFC radar occurred. Debris from the barn was thrown more than 300 yards away.

The tornado continued to track east damaging another barn and uprooting several trees as it moved across Liberty Church Road. Another older barn at a residence just east of Liberty Church Road sustained significant damage, with most of its (sheet-metal) roof ripped off and walls destroyed. Additional trees were seen snapped or uprooted at this location and about 1/4 mile downstream in a wooded area (seen also by drone footage). Beyond this final point, no notable damage was seen

Written by NWS FFC in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• Tree snapped near base. Small size

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A QLCS moved into western Georgia during the mid morning hours of the 10th. The strongest storms were located south of I20 with several bowing and comma-head sections which lead to pockets of strong wind damage and a brief tornado in Carrol county. Storms quickly weakened as they moved eastward, as a wedge was in place over northern Georgia.||Storms in north Georgia became nearly stationary ahead of the main line with high proficient rainfall rates along and south of the southern Appalachians. This resulted in areas of flash flooding.

A brief tornado touched down just south of Lowell in southern|Carroll County late Saturday morning. The tornado was embedded |within a Quasi-Linear Convective System. Damage was first seen at|a residence near Lake Circle and Staples Dairy Road. A 2-story |home had a good portion of its roof cover pulled up along with the|southwest-facing wall/siding severely damaged. The structure |remained intact. Adjacent to the home, a barn was nearly destroyed|with several 6' x 6' poles ripped out of the ground (secured in |the ground by concrete). Based on this damage, it is estimated the|tornado reached near its peak intensity of 90- 95 mph (EF-1). It |was in this area, a CC drop/TDS on FFC radar occurred. Debris from|the barn was thrown more than 300 yards away. The tornado |continued to track east damaging another barn and uprooting |several trees as it moved across Liberty Church Road. Another |older barn at a residence just east of Liberty Church Road |sustained significant damage, with most of its (sheet-metal) roof|ripped off and walls destroyed. Additional trees were seen |snapped or uprooted at this location and about 1/4 mile downstream|in a wooded area (seen also by drone footage). Beyond this final |point, no notable damage was seen.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 09:51 UTC and running to 17:11 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:14 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:52 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2026 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

6 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.