F1 tornado, Griffin to Locust Grove, Georgia, April 3, 1998

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.

Rating

F1

Date

April 3, 1998

Touchdown

7:52 PM EST (00:52 UTC)

Path length

6.0 miles (9.7 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$500,000

Counties

Spalding and Henry counties

Touchdown point

33.280, -84.220

Lift-off point

33.350, -84.120

Record number

774

The Spalding county EMA reported 30 homes suffered minor to heavy damage. One on North Walkers Mill Road was completely destroyed. In the Amelia Road area, homes sustained moderate damage with one shifted off its foundation. Light to moderate damage was in the Gainer Road area. The path length and width were estimated, but the storm apparently only touched down intermittently along the track.

The tornado in Spalding county continued into Henry county, but apparently weakened. Sight survey by NWS employees showed numerous trees were downed. Some were pointing toward the west while others were toward the south indicating rotation of the storm. Eight mobile homes in the Indian Creek mobile home park were damaged, mainly from falling trees. The tornado seemed to skirt the southern edge of the mobile home park before lifting. Only one minor injury was reported.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:39 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:46 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 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.