Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 1991

F1 tornado, Taylor and Upson counties, Georgia, March 29, 1991

This F1 tornado ran 6.0 miles across Taylor and Upson counties on March 29, 1991, touching down at 7:05 AM EST and reaching 23 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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 29, 1991
Touchdown
7:05 AM EST (12:05 UTC)
Path length
6.0 miles (9.7 km)
Path width
23 yards (21 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
Counties
Taylor and Upson counties
Touchdown point
32.720, -84.250
Lift-off point
32.780, -84.200
Record number
179

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a High Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 07:21 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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

0.1 hours before the tornado, 159 km from the path. March 29, 1991.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Athens Municipal, GA at 12:00Z on 1991-03-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 450 joules per kilogram, CIN -10, lifted condensation level 625 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 12:00Z on 1991-03-29The 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 293 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 67 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
450 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-10 J/kg
Surface CAPE
206 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
625 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
67 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
293 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
356 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
4.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.9 hours after it, 159 km from the path. March 30, 1991.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Athens Municipal, GA at 00:00Z on 1991-03-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 41 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 595 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 1991-03-30The 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 32 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 97 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
41 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
33 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
595 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
97 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
32 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
4 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1991 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 29, 1991

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 295:30 AM CSTF1Talladega, AL1.073513$50,000 to $500,000
March 297:15 AM ESTF2Douglas, GA3.02002$5 million to $50 million
March 297:30 AM ESTF3Cobb, GA5.01,32025$5 million to $50 million
March 296:40 AM CSTF2Russell, AL2.030016$500,000 to $5 million
March 2910:05 AM ESTF0Muscogee, GA0.120$500 to $5,000
March 2910:00 AM CSTF1Monroe, AL1.030
March 291:22 PM ESTF2Aiken, SC0.210
March 292:00 PM ESTF0Chesterfield, SC0.2104$50,000 to $500,000
March 292:03 PM ESTF1Marlboro, SC1.5100$50,000 to $500,000
March 292:45 PM ESTF2Randolph, NC28.0300$500,000 to $5 million
March 292:50 PM ESTF1Stanly, NC2.080$500,000 to $5 million
March 293:15 PM ESTF0City of Suffolk, VA3.010$5,000 to $50,000
March 293:30 PM ESTF2Chatham, NC26.0300$50,000 to $500,000
March 293:33 PM ESTF1Moore, NC1.01502$50,000 to $500,000
March 294:05 PM ESTF1Scotland, NC8.0801$50,000 to $500,000
March 294:22 PM ESTF0Northampton, NC0.510$500 to $5,000
March 295:10 PM ESTF1Bertie, NC0.5701$5,000 to $50,000
March 295:30 PM ESTF1Hertford, NC1.080$5,000 to $50,000
March 295:45 PM ESTF1Halifax, NC0.5200$5,000 to $50,000
March 297:30 PM ESTF1Lenoir, NC12.010033$500,000 to $5 million

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.