Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 1996

F2 tornado, Red Rock to Shingler, Georgia, March 6, 1996

From Red Rock to Shingler, this F2 tornado ran 10.0 miles across Worth County on March 6, 1996, touching down at 11:02 AM EST and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $6.0 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
March 6, 1996
Touchdown
11:02 AM EST (16:02 UTC)
Path length
10.0 miles (16.1 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$6.0 million
County
Worth County
Touchdown point
31.580, -83.930
Lift-off point
31.580, -83.780
Record number
153

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado began near Oak Glenn and moved east across Worth County to Shingler. Several mobile homes were destroyed along with several tractor trailers. At least four large grain bins were demolished along with other farm buildings and equipment. Damage to timber was also significant.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

4 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:58 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 16:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:58 UTC16:30 UTCTornado WarningTAE
19:27 UTC20:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTAE
22:43 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTAE

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:51 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.

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 12:00Z

4.0 hours before the tornado, 138 km from the path. March 6, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 1996-03-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 243 joules per kilogram, CIN -126, lifted condensation level 503 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 1996-03-06The 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 192 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
243 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-126 J/kg
Surface CAPE
53 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
503 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
192 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
307 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 00:00Z

8.0 hours after it, 138 km from the path. March 7, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 1996-03-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1365 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 524 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 1996-03-07The 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 246 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
1365 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1439 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
524 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
246 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
323 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.9
Supercell composite
11.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 6, 1996

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 63:20 AM CSTF1Perry, AL1.580$100,000
March 63:42 AM CSTF3Dallas, AL19.0400440$8.0 million
March 65:12 AM CSTF1Montgomery, AL1.080$1.3 million
March 65:14 AM CSTF1Montgomery, AL1.580$700,000
March 65:16 AM CSTF1Montgomery, AL1.580$800,000
March 65:20 AM CSTF2Montgomery, AL4.0200217$1.5 million
March 67:50 AM ESTF0Harris, GA0.120$10,000
March 68:20 AM ESTF1Upson, GA0.5200$200,000
March 611:45 AM ESTF0Laurens, GA0.110$10,000
March 63:00 PM ESTF1Seminole, GA0.5501$100,000
March 62:05 PM CSTF1Jackson, FL7.0100$500,000
March 65:50 PM ESTF0Colquitt, GA4.025$20,000
March 67:00 PM ESTF0Decatur, GA0.125

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.