EF-1 tornado confirmed in Henry County during storms

An EF-1 tornado touched down in Henry County during the severe storms that barreled through metro Atlanta on Monday.

As a strong line of thunderstorms moved northeast through the county, the tornado hit the ground near I-75 and Jodeco Road at about 1:08 p.m. with maximum sustained winds of up to 90 mph, according to the National Weather Service. It then moved east for about 6.5 miles before crossing the interstate and damaging around 40 trees along Brannan Road.

An NWS meteorologist said crews were still working to determine whether a tornado also touched down in Coweta County. Earlier Monday, Channel 2’s Chief Meteorologist Brad Nitz said a radar-confirmed tornado was spotted whirling in eastern Coweta before it crossed into Fayette County around 12:45 p.m. However, no significant damage was reported in either county.

“The survey team went out there (to Coweta) and there are still some odds and ends they need to finalize,” the NWS meteorologist told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Tornado warnings popped up and quickly expired across the metro region throughout the early afternoon as storms swept through, cutting power to thousands and downing trees.

Departures to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International were grounded for a couple of hours and resumed at 3:15 p.m. The airport advised travelers to check for updated flight information.

In Fayette, the county experienced ”a brief period of strong winds and there are some sporadic power outages,” Emergency Management Agency Director Brian Davis told the AJC.

Coweta’s EMA Director Michael Terrell also reported minor impacts.

“We are seeing trees down but nothing to indicate a tornado at this time,” Terrell said. “It (is) possible a very weak spin-up happened, but we haven’t seen anything other than limbs and trees.”

As of 8 p.m., Georgia Power said more than 7,900 customers across the state were without power, including about 600 in metro Atlanta.

The state’s electric membership cooperatives have reported more than 3,900 outages; a small fraction of those are in the metro area.

In Rockdale County, multiple trees and power lines came down and some roads closed due to “light flooding,” according to Noemi Hays of the emergency management agency.

Crews also cleared debris from roads in Carroll County after the storms damaged several homes and uprooted trees, the sheriff’s office said on Facebook. In Acworth in Cobb County, at least one tree fell and damaged a home.

The line of strong to severe storms marched into Georgia from the west, with the worst hitting the city between 1-2 p.m.

Another punchy storm was expected to reach the city Monday night, just as a cold front arrived.

“As we head through the evening, you will still see just a few isolated showers and storms develop,” Nitz said.

Behind that storm, cooler, drier air will move into North Georgia, the Weather Service says.