Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 1967

F2 tornado, Screven County, Georgia, July 7, 1967

This F2 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Screven County on July 7, 1967, touching down at 6:45 PM GMT-4 and reaching 33 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
July 7, 1967
Touchdown
6:45 PM GMT-4 (22:45 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
33 yards (30 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Screven County
Touchdown point
32.750, -81.630
Record number
598

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.

Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), 12:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 153 km from the path. July 7, 1967.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Charleston AFB, SC at 12:00Z on 1967-07-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 701 joules per kilogram, CIN -14, lifted condensation level 681 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, Charleston AFB, SC at 12:00Z on 1967-07-07The 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 88 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 knots.1939Sfc1 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
701 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-14 J/kg
Surface CAPE
466 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
681 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
88 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
121 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), 00:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 153 km from the path. July 8, 1967.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Charleston AFB, SC at 00:00Z on 1967-07-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1345 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 675 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, Charleston AFB, SC at 00:00Z on 1967-07-08The 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 28 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1345 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1184 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
675 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
28 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
45 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Augusta/Bush Field (AGS), 76 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:00 UTC7970280° 7 kt1019
00:00 UTC7268130° 8 kt1021

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1967 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 7, 1967

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 72:05 PM GMT-5F0Stutsman, ND0.110
July 74:00 PM GMT-4F2Taylor, GA2.030$5,000 to $50,000
July 77:50 PM GMT-5F0Ransom, ND0.110

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.