Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2001
F1 tornado, Vanna, Georgia, January 19, 2001
This F1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Hart County on January 19, 2001, touching down at 1:40 PM EST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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.
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
- January 19, 2001
- Touchdown
- 1:40 PM EST (18:40 UTC)
- Path length
- 1.0 miles (1.6 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $50,000
- County
- Hart County
- Touchdown point
- 34.230, -83.080
- Lift-off point
- 34.230, -83.080
- Record number
- 2
What the Weather Service recorded
A cold front crossed northeast Georgia on the 19th, producing strong convection. A small tornado moved west to east, first damaging a couple of chicken houses west of Highway 17, then causing more substantial damage from 1/4 to 1/2 mile east of the highway. Three houses were damaged, a mobile home was pushed off its foundation, and trees were downed.The tornado damage was maximized on the hilltops. The most damage, $25,000 or so, occurred at the last house, where mid F1-level damage occurred. Most of the damage was F0 to low F1. Rear flank downdraft winds occurred just southeast of the tornado, mostly in the form of destroyed barns and chicken houses.
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18:51 UTC | 19:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GSP |
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 16:24 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.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jan 19, 10:42 AM EST, 2 hours 58 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Jan 19, 10:42 AM EST, 2 hours 58 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC 1042 AM EST FRI JAN 19 2001 ZONES MAY BE A LITTLE LATE. HAD TO DO A MAJOR REWRITE TO THE FCST MATRIX. ONLY ONE LOCATION...CLT...REPORTING DENSE FOG ATTM. WILL ALLOW DFA TO EXPIRE. WARM SECTOR HAS MOVED NWD INTO THE CWFA...GRD/EQY SOUTH WINDS AND RAPIDLY RISING TEMPS/DEW POINTS. COLD POOL REMAINS OVER REST OF CWFA. SFC LOW MOVING NWD TO OUR WEST...SO EROSION OF COLD POOL LIKELY TO CONTINUE...BUT SLOWLY. THIS INCREASES CHC OF SVR WX ALONG OUR SRN TIER COUNTIES...BUT WILL LEAVE OUT OF FCST ATTM. ISENTROPIC LIFT/WWA TO CONTINUE AHEAD OF FNT THIS AFTERNOON. TSRA BUILDING TO OUR WEST AND WILL SLIDE EAST INTO OUR AREA LATER. ALL THIS AGREES WITH CURRENT FCST. TEMPS/WINDS ARE ANOTHER STORY. HAVE SPLIT OFF SRN TIER WITH WARMER TEMPS AND HIER WINDS. HAVE LEFT OUT LWA ATTM GIVEN POOR CONDITIONS PER LOCAL POLICY. MADE SOME CHANGES TO WINDS/TEMPS ELSEWHERE INDICATING SLOWER EROSION OF COLD POOL. NO CHANGES TO LATER PERIODS. GSP 58 46 49 29 / 100 90 40 20 AND 59 46 49 29 / 100 90 40 20 CLT 59 45 48 27 / 100 90 50 20 HKY 53 42 45 25 / 100 90 50 30 AVL 56 38 38 22 / 100 90 60 60 .GSP... GA...NONE. NC...WINTER STORM WATCH FOR SATURDAY FOR ZONES NCZ033...NCZ048>052... NCZ058. SC...NONE. RWH
In the hours before
Special weather statement, Jan 19, 10:55 AM EST, 2 hours 45 minutes before
GAZ010-017-018-026-028-029-NCZ033>037-048>059-062>072-082-SCZ001>014- 019-192251- SEVERE WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC 1055 AM EST FRI JAN 19 2001 ...VERY HEAVY RAIN TO AFFECT THE REGION THROUGH TONIGHT...WITH SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS POSSIBLE LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING... LOW PRESSURE WAS LOCATED IN NORTHWEST GEORGIA LATE FRIDAY MORNING...WITH A COLD FRONT EXTENDING SOUTHWARD TO THE GULF COAST REGION. A WARM FRONT EXTENDED FROM THE LOW NORTHWARD TO SOUTHERN TENNESSEE...SOUTHEAST TO ALONG THE CENTRAL SAVANNAH RIVER VALLEY...THEN NORTHWARD THROUGH THE SOUTHERN UPSTATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA...TO CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA. THIS FRONT WAS THE LEADING EDGE OF MUCH WARMER...UNSTABLE AIR...THAT WILL CONTINUE TO ADVANCE NORTHWARD...AS THE GEORGIA SURFACE LOW TRACKS OVER THE REGION. AS THE LOW PRESSURE AREA WORKS ITS WAY INTO THE WESTERN CAROLINAS THIS AFTERNOON...WIDESPREAD SHOWERS...AND A FEW THUNDERSTORMS...WILL DEVELOP. THE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE MOST PREVALENT IN AREAS THAT SEE THE GREATEST RISE IN TEMPERATURES...AND WILL BE MORE ISOLATED WHERE THE AIR IS MOST STABLE. THE AIR OVER THE MOUNTAINS AND FOOTHILLS WAS STILL QUITE STABLE LATE FRIDAY MORNING...WITH TEMPERATURES IN THE LOWER TO MIDDLE 40S. HOWEVER...TEMPERATURES HAD RISEN SHARPLY INTO THE 50S AND LOWER 60S IN PARTS OF THE PIEDMONT...FROM ELBERTON TO GREENWOOD...CLINTON...CHESTER AND MONROE. THE AIR WAS MUCH MORE MOISTURE-LADEN THERE...AND IT IS THESE AREAS THAT SEEM THE MOST LIKELY TO EXPERIENCE THE STRONGER THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SEVERE WEATHER TODAY. THE WIND PROFILE FOR THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING WILL SUPPORT DAMAGING WIND GUSTS OVER 70 MPH...AND ISOLATED TORNADOES. LARGE HAIL IS ALSO POSSIBLE...BUT WIND DAMAGE FROM THUNDERSTORM GUSTS OR TORNADOES SEEMS THE MOST PROBABLE SEVERE WEATHER PHENOMENON WITH THE APPROACHING STORM. IN ADDITION TO SEVERE WEATHER...VERY HEAVY RAIN CAN BE EXPECTED. THE HEAVIEST RAIN WILL OCCUR LATE THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH TONIGHT AS THE SURFACE LOW CROSSES THE REGION. SOME AREAS HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED NEARLY THREE INCHES OF RAIN...BUT FORTUNATELY...NO FLOODING HAS YET BEEN OBSERVED. AN ADDITIONAL ONE TO TWO INCHES CAN BE EXPECTED BY DAYBREAK SATURDAY. THE RAINFALL COULD BE HEAVY ENOUGH AT TIMES TO CREATE PONDING OF WATER ON ROADS...AND IN POOR DRAINAGE AREAS. NO FLOOD...OR SEVERE WEATHER...WATCHES OR WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT...BUT WE WILL CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE SITUATION CLOSELY AND ISSUE APPROPRIATE PRODUCTS AS NECESSARY. STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...LOCAL RADIO AND TELEVISION...OR CAB;LE TELEVISION FOR LATER STATEMENTS ON THIS DEVELOPING WEATHER SITUATION. BURRUS
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
6.7 hours before the tornado, 162 km from the path. January 19, 2001.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 39 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -12 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 510 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 73 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 297 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 365 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.5 K/km
Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 00:00Z
5.3 hours after it, 162 km from the path. January 20, 2001.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -4556 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 883 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 70 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -26 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -169 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
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 January 19, 2001
3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 19 | 9:22 AM CST | F0 | Montgomery, AL | 2.3 | 100 | 4 | $450,000 | |
| January 19 | 12:24 PM EST | F0 | Clayton, GA | 0.1 | 100 | 8 | $2.5 million | |
| January 19 | 12:30 PM EST | F0 | Taylor, GA | 0.0 | 20 |
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.