Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 1982

F2 tornado, Lanier County, Georgia, April 25, 1982

This F2 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Lanier County on April 25, 1982, touching down at 6:00 PM EDT and reaching 400 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 5, and did $500,000 to $5 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 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
April 25, 1982
Touchdown
6:00 PM EDT (22:00 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
400 yards (366 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
5
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
County
Lanier County
Touchdown point
30.950, -82.980
Record number
205

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 (KAYS), 12:00Z

10.0 hours before the tornado, 132 km from the path. April 25, 1982.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 1982-04-25Temperature 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 -124, lifted condensation level 589 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 12:00Z on 1982-04-25The 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 145 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 knots.193958Sfc1 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
-124 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
589 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
145 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
248 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KAYS), 00:00Z

2.0 hours after it, 132 km from the path. April 26, 1982.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 1982-04-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 93 joules per kilogram, CIN -81, lifted condensation level 544 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 1982-04-26The 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 176 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 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
93 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-81 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
544 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
176 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
272 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1982 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 25, 1982

22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 256:00 AM CDTF2Jackson, MS0.1103$50,000 to $500,000
April 256:20 AM CDTF3Mobile, AL1.5100$50,000 to $500,000
April 256:25 AM CDTF1Mobile, AL1.050$500 to $5,000
April 256:30 AM CDTF1Baldwin, AL1.077$5,000 to $50,000
April 259:00 AM CDTF1Santa Rosa, FL0.520$5,000 to $50,000
April 254:10 PM EDTF0Ben Hill, GA1.030$5,000 to $50,000
April 255:30 PM CDTF0Fannin, TX1.050
April 256:52 PM CDTF1Garland, AR0.110under $50
April 257:08 PM CDTF1Red River, TX4.077$5,000 to $50,000
April 257:10 PM CDTF2Lamar, TX13.0100$50,000 to $500,000
April 257:35 PM CDTF3Hot Spring, AR9.0880$50,000 to $500,000
April 257:50 PM CDTF1Bowie, TX3.050under $50
April 258:30 PM CDTF2Cleveland, AR2.0200$5,000 to $50,000
April 258:42 PM CDTF1Cass, TX6.050under $50
April 258:54 PM CDTF1Bowie, TX2.050under $50
April 259:00 PM CDTF0Saline, AR0.110under $50
April 259:15 PM CDTF3De Soto Parish, LA7.0200$50,000 to $500,000
April 259:15 PM CDTF3De Soto Parish, LA7.0200$50,000 to $500,000
April 259:30 PM CDTF1Grant, AR0.110$5,000 to $50,000
April 2510:00 PM CDTF2Pulaski, AR0.53001$500,000 to $5 million
April 2510:45 PM CDTF3Webster Parish, LA23.05001$50,000 to $500,000
April 2511:11 PM CDTF0Lonoke, AR0.110under $50

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.