Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 1961

F3 tornado, Dooly County, Georgia, March 31, 1961

This F3 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Dooly County on March 31, 1961, touching down at 8:20 AM GMT-5 and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 14, and did $500,000 to $5 million of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mphthis tornado

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F3
Date
March 31, 1961
Touchdown
8:20 AM GMT-5 (13:20 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
1
Injuries
14
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
County
Dooly County
Touchdown point
32.250, -83.730
Record number
146

What the Weather Service recorded

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

AgeSexWhereKind
Direct

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Athens Municipal, GA (KAHN), 12:00Z

1.3 hours before the tornado, 193 km from the path. March 31, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Athens Municipal, GA at 12:00Z on 1961-03-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -9550, lifted condensation level 813 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Athens Municipal, GA at 12:00Z on 1961-03-31The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 743 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 77 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9550 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
813 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
77 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
743 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
1126 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Athens Municipal, GA (KAHN), 00:00Z

10.7 hours after it, 193 km from the path. April 1, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Athens Municipal, GA at 00:00Z on 1961-04-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 63 joules per kilogram, CIN -134, lifted condensation level 560 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Athens Municipal, GA at 00:00Z on 1961-04-01The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 263 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
63 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-134 J/kg
Surface CAPE
126 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
560 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
263 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
130 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1961 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 31, 1961

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 318:10 AM GMT-5F2Schley, GA0.5400$5,000 to $50,000
March 318:30 AM GMT-5F1Houston, GA1.0200$5,000 to $50,000
March 318:30 AM GMT-5F0Pulaski, GA0.317$500 to $5,000
March 319:00 AM GMT-5F1Bleckley, GA0.823$500 to $5,000
March 319:15 AM GMT-5F1Laurens, GA1.033$500 to $5,000
March 3110:00 AM GMT-5F1Worth, GA1.0400$5,000 to $50,000
March 3111:00 AM GMT-5F2Tattnall, GA0.233$500 to $5,000
March 311:50 PM GMT-5F1Hamilton, FL0.5100$50 to $500
March 311:10 PM GMT-6F3Muscogee, AL to GA8.21677$5,000 to $50,000
March 312:20 PM GMT-5F1Charlton, GA3.34001
March 312:50 PM GMT-5F0Nassau, FL0.110$500 to $5,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.