Could a Joplin-Like Tornado Happen Here?

More than 100 confirmed dead. Thousands of buildings, including homes, destroyed. A hospital evacuated; schools and business shuttered.

The scene in Joplin, MO, where a tornado with winds estimated from 190 to 198 mph touched down Sunday and flattened large portions of the city, is dominating television and Internet news with horrifying images of a town decimated by Mother Nature.

The National Weather Service has rated the Joplin tornado as an EF5 storm, the top of the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which takes into account estimated wind speed and the likelihood of physical damage.

As rescue workers search for survivors and the nation looks on, it is difficult to ignore one creeping question: Could something like what happened in Missouri happen in Northeast Cobb?

Jessica Fieux, a forecastor at the Peachtree City National Weather Service office, told Northeast Cobb Patch that, yes, a Joplin-like tornado could happen in north and central Georgia.

“In fact, during the April 27 and 28 tornado outbreak, 15 tornadoes tracked across the Peachtree City forecast area, which includes most of north and central Georgia. One was an EF5 tornado," she said.

According to the Peachtree City National Weather Service office, the April 27 and 28 tornado event this year ranks fifth for the number of tornadoes per year in our region from 1995 to 2011. As of May 3, the total number of confirmed tornadoes in Georgia from April 25 to 28 had grown to 178. The record for a multiday event was April 3-4, 1974, when 148 tornadoes occurred.

The last recorded tornado that passed through Northeast Cobb was on Feb. 26, 2008. It traveled 0.05 mile near the intersection of Trickum and Shallowford roads. No one was hurt. Its widest path was 20 feet.

To view past and present tornadoes in Northeast Cobb and across Georgia, use this interactive map.