Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 1963

F2 tornado, Montgomery County, Georgia, January 20, 1963

This F2 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Montgomery County on January 20, 1963, touching down at 7:00 PM GMT-5 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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 mph

    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
F2
Date
January 20, 1963
Touchdown
7:00 PM GMT-5 (00:00 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Montgomery County
Touchdown point
32.030, -82.500
Record number
14

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.

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z

0.0 hours before the tornado, 186 km from the path. January 21, 1963.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 1963-01-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 115 joules per kilogram, CIN -22, lifted condensation level 924 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, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 1963-01-21The 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 241 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 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
115 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-22 J/kg
Surface CAPE
547 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
924 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
241 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
271 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 12:00Z

12.0 hours after it, 186 km from the path. January 21, 1963.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 1963-01-21Temperature 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 -16157, lifted condensation level 822 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, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 1963-01-21The 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 -199 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 76 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-16157 J/kg
Surface CAPE
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
822 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
76 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-199 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-114 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1963 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of January 20, 1963

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
January 203:00 PM GMT-6F1Coffee, AL14.110$50,000 to $500,000
January 204:50 PM GMT-5F2Schley, GA16.44001$50,000 to $500,000
January 205:00 PM GMT-5F1Clay, GA70.250014$500,000 to $5 million
January 205:00 PM GMT-5F2Twiggs, GA0.5302$5,000 to $50,000
January 205:30 PM GMT-5F2Houston, GA7.9331$5,000 to $50,000
January 205:30 PM GMT-5F1Wilcox, GA8.233$50,000 to $500,000
January 207:00 PM GMT-5F1Jeff Davis, GA1.030$50,000 to $500,000
January 2010:25 PM GMT-5F1Onslow, NC0.110$5,000 to $50,000

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.