page_title: 2008 Atlanta tornado outbreak
section_title: Atlanta tornado event
hierarchical_section_title: 2008 Atlanta tornado outbreak / Meteorological synopsis / Atlanta tornado event
caption_attribution_description: English: Damage from the tornado near Centennial Park.
context_page_description: The 2008 Atlanta tornado outbreak was a tornado outbreak that affected the Southeastern United States on March 14–15, 2008.
  A tornado caused widespread damage across downtown Atlanta, including to the CNN Center and to the Georgia Dome, where the 2008 SEC Men's Basketball Tournament was postponed. Other buildings that were damaged include the Georgia World Congress Center, Philips Arena, and the Omni Hotel, which was evacuated after many windows were blown out. The Westin Peachtree Plaza suffered major window damage. The image of the building with all the windows blown out became famous and, for a time, was the symbol of the tornado. Centennial Olympic Park, SunTrust Plaza and historic Oakland Cemetery were also damaged.
  One man was killed near downtown Atlanta and 30 others were injured. Two other deaths took place on March 15, in the northern Atlanta suburbs, from the second, larger round of severe weather and tornadoes. In total, 45 tornadoes were confirmed over the 24-hour period from eastern Alabama to the Carolina coast, with most of the activity concentrated in the Metropolitan Atlanta area, the Central Savannah River Area and the Midlands of South Carolina.
context_section_description: In their 9:00 pm EDT outlook, the Storm Prediction Center issued a slight risk of severe weather across portions of the southern United States from Oklahoma to Georgia, with a 2% risk area for tornadoes for the Atlanta area.  A tornado warning was issued for Atlanta at 9:26 pm when the thunderstorm that caused the tornado was 6 miles (10 km) northwest of the downtown area, although no watches were in effect for the area due to the low probability and unusual isolated nature. The tornado moved to the southeast, which is unusual as most supercells have a strong northward component along (or ahead of) a cold front.  It also was unusual because it was not associated with such a squall line at all, but was an independent supercell well ahead of the main storm system.
caption: Damage near Centennial Park.
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