An EF1 tornado touched down in Carroll County during the severe storms that caused damage across metro Atlanta over the weekend, officials confirmed Sunday.
The twister hit the ground at about 10:54 a.m. Saturday in the southern part of the county with maximum sustained winds of up to 95 mph, the National Weather Service said. It moved east for about a mile, damaging several buildings along the way.
The destruction was first seen near Lake Circle and Staples Dairy Road, where a two-story home was damaged, the NWS said. The twister caused debris from a nearby barn, whose poles had been secured by concrete, to fly more than 900 feet away.
According to the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Management, several buildings and barns were destroyed in the area. Many trees were also uprooted.
“Please use caution in the affected area as there may still be crews working to clean up the debris, downed trees, or power lines,” the agency wrote on Facebook on Sunday afternoon.
A survey team visited the area on Sunday, the NWS said.
The severe weather threat ended across North and central Georgia around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, the Weather Service announced. It was part of the same system that led to tornado watches and severe thunderstorm warnings over the Midwest, Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Ashley Kramlich said.
Parts of Fulton, Carroll and Coweta counties were briefly under a tornado warning from 11 to 11:15 a.m. Saturday, the NWS said. A tornado-producing storm had been located over Plant Yates, about 11 miles northwest of Newnan, and was moving at 50 mph.
Most of Georgia was under a Level 1 of 5 risk for excessive rain, according to the NWS.
By 3 a.m. Saturday, up to 1½ inches of rain had been dumped across North Georgia as far south as northern Polk County. Some isolated locations saw up to 6 inches of rain, the Weather Service predicted.
A flood watch was in effect until Saturday night.
The storms seemingly washed away the unseasonal warmth experienced across metro Atlanta over the past week. On Sunday, highs reached the upper 40s, and Monday’s weather was projected to be similar.
“After starting 2026 with near-record warmth, we’ll be settling back into more seasonal January temperatures this week,” the NWS said.
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