Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 1999
F3 tornado, Drayton to Vienna, Georgia, April 15, 1999
From Drayton to Vienna, this F3 tornado ran 14.5 miles across Dooly County on April 15, 1999, touching down at 10:20 AM EDT and reaching 700 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 28, and did $10 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.
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 mph
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 mphthis tornado
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
- F3
- Date
- April 15, 1999
- Touchdown
- 10:20 AM EDT (14:20 UTC)
- Path length
- 14.5 miles (23.3 km)
- Path width
- 700 yards (640 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 28
- Property damage
- $10 million
- County
- Dooly County
- Touchdown point
- 32.050, -83.970
- Lift-off point
- 32.120, -83.720
- Record number
- 821
What the Weather Service recorded
An NWS Storm survey showed the tornado touched down along highway 27 at the Flint River near Drayton. The tornado hopped eastward along highway 27, demolishing pecan orchards and barns, before devastating the town of Vienna. It exited the town between 2 schools, with only minor damage to either. It later crossed I-75 between Georgia highways 27 and 215, blocking the Interstate with debris. The storm lifted a short distance east of there between Noble Gin Road and Smyrna Church Road. The EMA director said 25 percent of homes and businesses were destroyed or severely damaged. Of the 28 injuries the most serious was a broken leg. Newspaper accounts reported 69 houses, 15 mobile homes, and 9 businesses were destroyed. Another 256 homes, 12 churches, 10 mobile homes, and 6 businesses suffered damage. Three apartment complexes were ruined and 70 power poles were ripped from the ground. Around 400 people were left homeless in a town with a population of over 2700.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
10 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 14:10 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:45 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:10 UTC | 14:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | FFC |
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 12:57 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.
Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 12:00Z
2.3 hours before the tornado, 155 km from the path. April 15, 1999.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -98 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 481 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 58 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 47 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 401 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 630 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.8 K/km
Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 00:00Z
9.7 hours after it, 155 km from the path. April 16, 1999.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -1 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 22 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1703 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 56 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 13 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 64 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 151 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.4 K/km
The surface observations
Warner Robins Afb (WRB), 66 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12:37 UTC | 64.4 | 60.8 | 130° 9 kt | 1006.8 | VCSH | |
| 12:55 UTC | 64.4 | 60.8 | 130° 10 kt | 1006.1 | VCSH | |
| 13:00 UTC | 64.4 | 60.8 | 140° 10 kt | 1006.1 | TS VCSH | |
| 13:10 UTC | 64.4 | 60.8 | 140° 10 kt | 1005.8 | -TSRA | |
| 13:34 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 130° 14 kt | 1004.4 | TSRA | |
| 14:55 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 180° 9 kt | 1005.4 | -SHRA | |
| 15:55 UTC | 68 | 64.4 | 220° 4 kt | 1004.4 | -DZ |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1999 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 15, 1999
18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 15 | 2:00 AM CDT | F0 | Clarke, AL | 3.0 | 150 | $100,000 | ||
| April 15 | 11:58 AM EDT | F2 | Allendale, SC | 3.0 | 150 | $2,000 | ||
| April 15 | 12:45 PM EDT | F0 | Emanuel, GA | 4.0 | 100 | $10,000 | ||
| April 15 | 1:04 PM EDT | F1 | Candler, GA | 9.0 | 100 | 2 | $250,000 | |
| April 15 | 3:05 PM EDT | F0 | Candler, GA | 1.5 | 0 | $10,000 | ||
| April 15 | 3:05 PM EDT | F0 | Bulloch, GA | 1.0 | 40 | $10,000 | ||
| April 15 | 5:00 PM EDT | F1 | Colleton, SC | 2.0 | 80 | $10,000 | ||
| April 15 | 6:06 PM EDT | F1 | Barnwell, SC | 2.0 | 100 | $3,000 | ||
| April 15 | 6:20 PM EDT | F0 | Barnwell, SC | 0.3 | 0 | $3,000 | ||
| April 15 | 6:33 PM EDT | F0 | Bamberg, SC | 0.1 | 0 | $1,000 | ||
| April 15 | 8:15 PM EDT | F2 | Robeson, NC | 0.3 | 0 | 1 | 4 | $200,000 |
| April 15 | 8:30 PM EDT | F1 | Robeson, NC | 0.1 | 40 | $20,000 | ||
| April 15 | 8:45 PM EDT | F2 | Bladen, NC | 0.1 | 30 | 5 | $200,000 | |
| April 15 | 10:00 PM EDT | F2 | Duplin, NC | 30.0 | 900 | 19 | $6.0 million | |
| April 15 | 10:15 PM EDT | F1 | Lenoir, NC | 3.0 | 10 | 2 | ||
| April 15 | 10:20 PM EDT | F1 | Onslow, NC | 10.0 | 10 | 7 | $2.0 million | |
| April 15 | 10:45 PM EDT | F0 | Craven, NC | 2.0 | 0 | |||
| April 15 | 11:05 PM EDT | F1 | Carteret, NC | 8.0 | 10 | $500,000 |
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.