An EF1 tornado touched down in Hall County during the severe storms that swept through North Georgia and metro Atlanta on Friday and Saturday.
A rogue mini supercell produced the brief tornado that hit the ground at about 6:55 p.m. Friday over the northern part of Lake Lanier, with maximum sustained winds of up to 90 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
The NWS noted that the tornado was captured on video by several eyewitnesses at the lake.
For about 3 miles, the twister traveled mostly over water as it moved north and damaged some trees on Highway 60 and at an apartment complex on North Cliff Colony Drive, the NWS said. Additional trees were uprooted or had snapped on Basin Road, Cochran Road and Willow Trace. Officials said it was on the ground for about nine minutes.
“Thankfully, no structural damage happened,” the NWS said.
The first threat of severe weather ended around 11:30 p.m. Friday, though scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms continued to move through the area overnight, according to the NWS.
Other damage was reported in Forsyth County, where a business collapsed, injuring four employees, the fire department said.
By early Saturday, a tree fell onto a home on Mims Street near Martin Luther King Jr. and Westview drives in southwest Atlanta, according to fire department spokesperson Anare Holmes.
A 13-year-old girl was killed, and two others — identified as her mother and grandmother — were taken to the hospital and were in stable condition, officials said. At least six people lived at the home.
Showers lingered in the metro area until about 3 p.m. before becoming more scattered and continuing to shift east.
By about 1 a.m. Sunday, the severe weather threat ended for North Georgia and central Georgia, the NWS said. Almost the entire state faced a Level 1 (of 5) risk for damaging wind gusts and hail.
Officials said conditions are expected to turn dry from Sunday through Tuesday.
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