F0 tornado, Butler, Georgia, January 19, 2001

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.

Rating

F0

Date

January 19, 2001

Touchdown

12:30 PM EST (17:30 UTC)

Path length

0.0 miles (0.0 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Taylor County

Touchdown point

32.520, -84.180

Lift-off point

32.520, -84.180

Record number

588

A storm survey conducted by National Weather Service personnel from the Peachtree City, Georgia office revealed that a weak F0 tornado touched down approximately 4 miles southeast of Butler. The tornado likely existed as a funnel cloud for a 10 minute period from 4 miles south to 6 miles east-southeast of Butler. A funnel was observed by state police between Buena Vista and Butler during this time frame. Along the path of the funnel, a couple of small pine trees were blown down. The funnel cloud then reached the ground as a weak F0 tornado approximately 4 miles southeast of Butler and only remained on the ground for a brief 1 to 2 minutes. The tornado touchdown occurred in a rural logging area and as a result, only a few small pine trees were blown down. Because of the nature and location of the damage, the dollar value of the damage was believed to have been insignificant.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:21 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:00 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 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.

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 2001 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

3 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.