Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 1980

F1 tornado, Baker County, Georgia, April 4, 1980

Name: F1 tornado, Baker County, Georgia, April 4, 1980
Start: 1980-04-04T12:00:00.000Z
Location: Baker County, Georgia

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Baker County on April 4, 1980, touching down at 7:00 AM EST and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 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.

F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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: April 4, 1980
Touchdown: 7:00 AM EST (12:00 UTC)
Path length: 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width: 20 yards (18 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $500 to $5,000
County: Baker County
Touchdown point: 31.380, -84.570
Record number: 70

The surface observations

Albany Municipal (ABY), 40 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Pressure (mb)	Weather
10:00 UTC	68	68	220° 10 kt	1011.5	FG
11:00 UTC	69	69	220° 8 kt	1010.8	-TSRA FG
11:23 UTC			200° 10 kt	1010.8	TSRA FG
12:00 UTC	69	68	250° 8 kt	1011.5	TSRA FG
12:23 UTC			230° 10 kt	1011.9	TSRA FG
13:00 UTC	67	67	270° 12 kt	1011.9

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

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 1980 tornado in Georgia Every tornado in Georgia since 1950 Warnings in force in Georgia now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 4, 1980

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
April 4	9:20 AM EST	F1	Coffee, GA	0.2	50		$500,000 to $5 million
April 4	11:00 AM EST	F1	Berrien, GA	0.2	20		$500 to $5,000
April 4	4:05 PM EST	F1	City of Norfolk, VA	0.2	30	1	$50,000 to $500,000
April 4	4:12 PM EST	F1	Worcester, MD	0.1	17		$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.