Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2000
F1 tornado, Hickory Flat, Georgia, April 3, 2000
This F1 tornado ran 7.0 miles across Cherokee County on April 3, 2000, touching down at 3:00 AM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1.1 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 mphthis tornado
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 mph
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
- F1
- Date
- April 3, 2000
- Touchdown
- 3:00 AM EDT (07:00 UTC)
- Path length
- 7.0 miles (11.3 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $1.1 million
- County
- Cherokee County
- Touchdown point
- 34.200, -84.430
- Lift-off point
- 34.180, -84.470
- Record number
- 712
What the Weather Service recorded
A survey by the Cherokee County Emergency Management Agency and a National Weather Service Disaster Survey Team showed that an F0 - F1 tornado traveled along a path almost 7 miles long through southeast Cherokee county. The damage path began just west of the intersection of Highway 140 and Pinyan Rd. It crossed the intersection of East Cherokee Dr. and Bart Manous Road, where it was 252 feet wide. It then tracked northeast across Thomas Road, where it was 500 feet wide, across Union Hill Road where it was 590 feet wide, and ended 204 yards north of Collect Drive where it was 235 feet wide. Almost 30 homes were hit, with 3 houses sustaining extensive damage, and nine outbuildings were destroyed. Large trees were uprooted along the path and 7 roads in the county had to be closed because of fallen trees and debris. Total estimated damage was $1.1 million.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
3 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:57 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:30 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 06:57 UTC | 07:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | FFC |
| 22:45 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm 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 05:11 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 radar
The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 93 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:58 UTC.
Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track
Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 3, 2000
28 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 3 | 2:00 AM EDT | F2 | Polk, GA | 6.0 | 70 | 6 | $1.0 million | |
| April 3 | 3:15 AM EDT | F1 | Gwinnett, GA | 4.0 | 150 | $1.5 million | ||
| April 3 | 4:55 AM EDT | F1 | Pickens, SC | 3.0 | 50 | |||
| April 3 | 4:04 AM CDT | F1 | Chambers, TX | 2.0 | 100 | $100,000 | ||
| April 3 | 4:08 AM CDT | F1 | Jefferson, TX | 2.0 | 20 | 1 | $100,000 | |
| April 3 | 4:20 AM CDT | F1 | Jefferson, TX | 1.5 | 20 | $3.0 million | ||
| April 3 | 5:10 AM CDT | F1 | Calcasieu Parish, LA | 5.0 | 20 | 5 | $100,000 | |
| April 3 | 5:45 AM CDT | F1 | Jefferson Davis Parish, LA | 3.0 | 20 | $250,000 | ||
| April 3 | 5:50 AM CDT | F0 | Jefferson Davis Parish, LA | 2.0 | 10 | $40,000 | ||
| April 3 | 6:00 AM CDT | F0 | Acadia Parish, LA | 7.0 | 20 | $100,000 | ||
| April 3 | 6:28 AM CDT | F1 | Saint Landry Parish, LA | 1.0 | 20 | 1 | $50,000 | |
| April 3 | 7:40 AM CDT | F1 | West Feliciana Parish, LA | 0.7 | 50 | $1,000 | ||
| April 3 | 7:45 AM CDT | F1 | West Feliciana Parish, LA | 3.0 | 50 | $200,000 | ||
| April 3 | 8:30 AM CDT | F1 | Livingston Parish, LA | 0.5 | 30 | $50,000 | ||
| April 3 | 8:40 AM CDT | F1 | East Baton Rouge Parish, LA | 0.3 | 20 | $50,000 | ||
| April 3 | 8:45 AM CDT | F1 | Saint Helena Parish, LA | 6.0 | 70 | $50,000 | ||
| April 3 | 9:00 AM CDT | F0 | Pike, MS | 0.2 | 20 | $20,000 | ||
| April 3 | 9:40 AM CDT | F0 | Assumption Parish, LA | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| April 3 | 11:22 AM CDT | F0 | Saint Tammany Parish, LA | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| April 3 | 11:39 AM CDT | F1 | Fayette, AL | 3.0 | 50 | 1 | $90,000 | |
| April 3 | 12:20 PM CDT | F2 | Tuscaloosa, AL | 11.1 | 300 | $90,000 | ||
| April 3 | 12:25 PM CDT | F1 | Choctaw, AL | 11.0 | 200 | $50,000 | ||
| April 3 | 12:44 PM CDT | F0 | Jefferson, AL | 3.0 | 40 | $20,000 | ||
| April 3 | 1:09 PM CDT | F1 | Jefferson, AL | 5.7 | 350 | $4.0 million | ||
| April 3 | 1:53 PM CDT | F0 | Chilton, AL | 1.0 | 40 | $50,000 | ||
| April 3 | 2:23 PM CDT | F0 | Coosa, AL | 1.0 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| April 3 | 8:35 PM EDT | F1 | Pike, GA | 7.5 | 50 | $1.0 million | ||
| April 3 | 8:30 PM CDT | F0 | Coffee, AL | 0.0 | 0 |
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.