Hail, Habersham
- When
- May 7, 3:53 PM EST
- Where
- Habersham County, 1 mi E of Tallulah Falls
- Measured
- 2.75 in hail
- Coordinates
- 34.730, -83.370
Tornado and Hail in Georgia, May 7, 1998
A warm front slowly moving north across northeast Georgia combined with a strong jet stream to produce multiple supercells that produced mainly quarter to baseball size hail. One weak tornado briefly touched down north of Elberton and cut a short path through a grain field.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- None recorded
- Crop damage
- $5,000
- Events
- 7
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS GSP wrote it up.
A warm front slowly moving north across northeast Georgia combined with a strong jet stream to produce multiple supercells that produced mainly quarter to baseball size hail. One weak tornado briefly touched down north of Elberton and cut a short path through a grain field. Some property damage resulted from the baseball size hail and possibly the tornado, but a dollar amount was undetermined.
The radar
The Greer radar (KGSP), 106 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 20:51 UTC.
Event by event
6 hail, 1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Hail, Rabun
- When
- May 7, 3:55 PM EST
- Where
- Rabun County, 5 mi S of Clayton
- Measured
- 1.75 in hail
- Coordinates
- 34.820, -83.400
Hail, Franklin
- When
- May 7, 4:30 PM EST
- Where
- Franklin County, 10 mi W of Carnesville
- Measured
- 1 in hail
- Coordinates
- 34.370, -83.420
Hail, Elbert
- When
- May 7, 5:15 PM EST to 5:22 PM EST
- Where
- Elbert County, 4 mi ENE of Elberton
- Measured
- 2.75 in hail
- Coordinates
- 34.130, -82.820
Tornado, Elbert
- When
- May 7, 5:24 PM EST
- Where
- Elbert County, 4 mi N of Elberton
- Rating
- F0
- Path length
- 0.1 mi
- Path width
- 15 yd
- Crop damage
- $5,000
- Coordinates
- 34.170, -82.870
Hail, Rabun
- When
- May 7, 6:05 PM EST
- Where
- Rabun County, Clayton
- Measured
- 1.75 in hail
- Coordinates
- 34.880, -83.400
Hail, Rabun
- When
- May 7, 6:43 PM EST
- Where
- Rabun County, Clayton
- Measured
- 1 in hail
- Coordinates
- 34.880, -83.400
What these are
- Hail
- Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornadoes and Hail in South Carolina, May 7 to 8, 1998
- Tornadoes and Hail in North Carolina, May 7, 1998
- Tornado in North Carolina, May 7, 1998
- Tornadoes and Hail in Georgia, May 7, 1998
- Tornado and Flash Flooding in Ohio, May 7, 1998
- Tornado and Hail in Georgia, May 7 to 8, 1998
- Tornadoes and Hail in North Carolina, May 7, 1998
- Tornado and Flash Flooding in Virginia, May 7, 1998
- Tornado in Tennessee, May 7, 1998
- Tornadoes and Flash Flood in South Carolina, May 7, 1998
- Tornado in Tennessee, May 7, 1998
- Tornado in North Carolina, May 7, 1998
More
Every storm in Georgia in 1998Every state in 1998This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Georgia, 1998Warnings in Georgia, May 1998
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5646299, 5646300, 5646301, 5646303, 5646302, 5646304, 5646305.