Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 1975

F1 tornado, Forsyth County, Georgia, March 7, 1975

This F1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Forsyth County on March 7, 1975, touching down at 5:00 PM EDT 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F1
Date
March 7, 1975
Touchdown
5:00 PM EDT (21:00 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
33 yards (30 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Forsyth County
Touchdown point
34.270, -84.100
Record number
101

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, 82 km from the path. March 7, 1975.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Athens Municipal, GA at 12:00Z on 1975-03-07Temperature 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 -10380, lifted condensation level 1041 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 1975-03-07The 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 159 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 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
-10380 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1041 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
159 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
206 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.0 hours after it, 82 km from the path. March 8, 1975.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Athens Municipal, GA at 00:00Z on 1975-03-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 11 joules per kilogram, CIN -209, lifted condensation level 1236 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 1975-03-08The 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 34 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 knots.1939587897117136156Sfc1 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
11 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-209 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1236 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
56 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Dobbins Afb/Mariett (MGE), 55 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:00 UTC6461200° 10 kt1012.5DZ
19:16 UTC210° 8 kt1011.5DZ
20:00 UTC6561220° 6 kt1011.5
20:29 UTC250° 8 kt1011.5-SHRA
21:00 UTC6661210° 6 kt1011.2TS
21:24 UTC290° 26 kt381011.9TSRAPLGR
22:00 UTC5955280° 14 kt441011.5TSRA
22:21 UTC270° 8 kt1011.5

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1975 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 7, 1975

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 71:27 AM CDTF2Saint Louis, MO0.1204$50,000 to $500,000
March 72:20 PM EDTF1Monroe, TN9.43203$5,000 to $50,000
March 72:40 PM EDTF1Blount, TN0.5200$5,000 to $50,000
March 75:30 PM EDTF1Cobb, GA1.050$50,000 to $500,000
March 76:30 PM CDTF0Russell, AL0.350

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.