Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2002

F0 tornado, Alma, Georgia, December 24, 2002

This F0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Bacon County on December 24, 2002, touching down at 10:55 AM EST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $40,000 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
December 24, 2002
Touchdown
10:55 AM EST (15:55 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$40,000
County
Bacon County
Touchdown point
31.450, -82.470
Lift-off point
31.450, -82.470
Record number
355

What the Weather Service recorded

House damaged by 16 inch diameter tree. Numerous trees down. 2 mile long path about 100 yards wide.

Numerous trees snapped off and down along Hwy 23.

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

The warnings

17 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:38 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 16:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:04 UTC16:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAX
15:38 UTC16:45 UTCTornado WarningJAX

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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:37 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.

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 12:00Z

3.9 hours before the tornado, 129 km from the path. December 24, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2002-12-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 101 joules per kilogram, CIN -110, lifted condensation level 495 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, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2002-12-24The 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 251 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
101 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-110 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
495 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
251 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
285 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z

8.1 hours after it, 129 km from the path. December 25, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2002-12-25Temperature 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 -81324, lifted condensation level 538 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, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2002-12-25The 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 149 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-81324 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
538 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
149 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
252 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2002 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of December 24, 2002

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 242:35 AM CSTF0Washington, AL0.120$10,000
December 242:40 AM CSTF0Monroe, AL0.120$10,000
December 243:05 AM CSTF0Washington, AL0.120$10,000
December 243:20 AM CSTF0Clarke, AL0.120$10,000
December 245:25 AM CSTF0Santa Rosa, FL0.330$140,000
December 246:45 AM CSTF1Henry, AL to GA33.015010$2.8 million
December 2410:10 AM ESTF1Irwin, GA0.375$250,000
December 2410:15 AM ESTF0Coffee, GA0.110$10,000
December 2410:25 AM ESTF0Jeff Davis, GA0.110$10,000
December 2410:55 AM ESTF0Bacon, GA0.1100$10,000
December 2411:04 AM ESTF0Appling, GA0.110
December 2411:30 AM ESTF0Brantley, GA0.110
December 2411:30 AM ESTF0Wayne, GA0.110
December 2411:43 AM ESTF1Charlton, GA0.530$100,000
December 2411:45 AM ESTF0Pierce, GA0.220$10,000
December 2411:50 AM ESTF0Charlton, GA4.250$100,000

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.