Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 1973

F3 tornado, Walton, Oconee and Clarke counties, Georgia, May 28, 1973

This F3 tornado ran 18.7 miles across Walton, Oconee and Clarke counties on May 28, 1973, touching down at 5:00 PM EDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 65, and did $5 million to $50 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
May 28, 1973
Touchdown
5:00 PM EDT (21:00 UTC)
Path length
18.7 miles (30.1 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
1
Injuries
65
Property damage
$5 million to $50 million
Counties
Walton, Oconee and Clarke counties
Touchdown point
33.870, -83.630
Lift-off point
33.970, -83.330
Record number
497

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

9.0 hours before the tornado, 17 km from the path. May 28, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Athens Municipal, GA at 12:00Z on 1973-05-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 262 joules per kilogram, CIN -35, lifted condensation level 677 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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 1973-05-28The 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 75 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 68 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 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
262 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-35 J/kg
Surface CAPE
317 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
677 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
68 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
75 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
180 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
1.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.0 hours after it, 17 km from the path. May 29, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Athens Municipal, GA at 00:00Z on 1973-05-29Temperature 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 -6396, lifted condensation level 1518 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 00:00Z on 1973-05-29The 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 3 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 70 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
-6396 J/kg
Surface CAPE
46 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1518 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
70 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
3 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
49 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Athens Municipal (AHN), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:00 UTC79.8870180° 15 kt1007.8
20:00 UTC8172170° 17 kt251005.8
21:00 UTC8071170° 14 kt1005.4TSRA
21:09 UTC260° 13 kt1007.5TSRA
21:31 UTC220° 5 kt1007.1TSRA
22:00 UTC7065.84350° 7 kt1006.1TS
22:13 UTC0° 0 kt1006.8TSRA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1973 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 28, 1973

22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 282:01 AM EDTF0Forsyth, NC0.1102$5,000 to $50,000
May 283:30 AM EDTF1Franklin, GA1.040$50,000 to $500,000
May 287:00 AM EDTF2Mecklenburg, NC9.6100$50,000 to $500,000
May 287:00 AM EDTF0Cabarrus, NC0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 2810:30 AM ESTF1Vermillion, IN0.130$500 to $5,000
May 282:02 PM ESTF1Marshall, IN0.120$500 to $5,000
May 282:55 PM ESTF1Steuben, IN2.020$5,000 to $50,000
May 284:00 PM EDTF0Montgomery, NC0.110$50,000 to $500,000
May 285:00 PM EDTF1Wake, NC6.4102$5,000 to $50,000
May 285:30 PM EDTF1Greenville, SC0.590$500 to $5,000
May 286:30 PM EDTF2York, SC2.0100$5,000 to $50,000
May 287:00 PM EDTF1Mecklenburg, NC0.1501$50,000 to $500,000
May 287:00 PM EDTF1Davidson, NC4.010$50,000 to $500,000
May 287:30 PM EDTF1Lehigh, PA1.9100$5,000 to $50,000
May 288:00 PM EDTF3Morris, NJ0.450$50,000 to $500,000
May 288:00 PM EDTF0Cabarrus, NC0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 288:00 PM EDTF0Gaston, NC0.110
May 288:30 PM EDTF1Halifax, NC24.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 288:55 PM EDTF3Morris, NJ0.45012$50,000 to $500,000
May 289:45 PM EDTF1Hertford, NC0.1101$50,000 to $500,000
May 2810:00 PM EDTF0Nash, NC1.010$5,000 to $50,000
May 289:30 PM CDTF1, VA0.110$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.