Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2001

F0 tornado, Bowman, Georgia, February 16, 2001

This F0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Elbert County on February 16, 2001, touching down at 7:50 PM EST and reaching 440 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
February 16, 2001
Touchdown
7:50 PM EST (00:50 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
440 yards (402 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Elbert County
Touchdown point
34.230, -83.030
Lift-off point
34.270, -83.030
Record number
21

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong cold front crossed the region on the evening of the 16th, resulting in gusty winds and strong to severe thunderstorms. Elbert County Sheriff's Department reported a couple of chicken housed damaged and destroyed. A brief storm survey found mostly evidence of debris blown forward, but one small area of convergent damage was noted. Several witnesses reported seeing the tornado on the ground. The tornado lifted just short of the Hart County line.

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

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:07 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), 00:00Z

0.8 hours before the tornado, 167 km from the path. February 17, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 00:00Z on 2001-02-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 111 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 1047 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, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 00:00Z on 2001-02-17The 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 65 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
111 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
98 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1047 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
186 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 12:00Z

11.2 hours after it, 167 km from the path. February 17, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 12:00Z on 2001-02-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -80023, lifted condensation level 767 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 12:00Z on 2001-02-17The 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 -324 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 80 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-80023 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
767 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
80 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-324 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-255 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
0.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Anderson Co Airport (AND), 40 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:56 UTC6958180° 8 kt1011.5
23:56 UTC6658170° 7 kt1010.2
00:56 UTC6957180° 13 kt171008.5
01:15 UTC64.460.8220° 12 kt1009.5+RA
01:38 UTC64.460.8230° 18 kt271009.8-RA
01:46 UTC64.460.8240° 20 kt341010.5-RA
01:56 UTC6460240° 21 kt351010.2-RA
02:07 UTC62.659250° 19 kt281010.2
02:28 UTC62.657.2320° 20 kt301011.2-RA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Greer radar (KGSP), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:47 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 2001 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 16, 2001

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 1612:10 PM CSTF2Holmes, MS4.050011$50,000
February 161:39 PM CSTF0Madison, AL4.430$40,000
February 163:35 PM CSTF0Marion, MS3.0150$20,000
February 164:10 PM CSTF0Jones, MS0.5150$1,000

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.