Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2003

F0 tornado, Baxley, Georgia, February 22, 2003

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Appling County on February 22, 2003, touching down at 11:31 AM EST. It killed nobody and injured 1, 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.

  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 22, 2003
Touchdown
11:31 AM EST (16:31 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
0 yards (0 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$50,000
County
Appling County
Touchdown point
31.770, -82.350
Lift-off point
31.770, -82.350
Record number
2

What the Weather Service recorded

One mobile home flipped over with a minor injury. EMA reports twisted tops of pine trees in nearby woods.

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)ExpiredProductOffice
16:22 UTC16:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 11:23 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

4.5 hours before the tornado, 154 km from the path. February 22, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2003-02-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 326 joules per kilogram, CIN -87, lifted condensation level 898 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 2003-02-22The 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 202 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
326 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-87 J/kg
Surface CAPE
27 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
898 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
202 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
226 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z

7.5 hours after it, 154 km from the path. February 23, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2003-02-23Temperature 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 -37311, lifted condensation level 1006 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 2003-02-23The 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 449 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 76 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
-37311 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1006 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
76 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
449 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
300 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Alma/Bacon Co. (AMG), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
14:53 UTC7167180° 10 kt1002-RA
15:07 UTC69.866.2180° 10 kt1002+RA BR
15:16 UTC71.668180° 9 kt1001.7-RA BR
15:53 UTC7168190° 14 kt1001.7
16:19 UTC71.668180° 13 kt181001.4VCTS -RA BR
16:23 UTC69.866.2260° 23 kt311004.1VCTS -RA BR
16:26 UTC66.264.4270° 17 kt311002.7VCTS +RA FG
16:33 UTC64.462.6240° 11 kt301002.7TSRA FG
16:36 UTC64.462.6230° 12 kt241003TSRA BR
16:53 UTC6562230° 9 kt1002.4TSRA BR
17:10 UTC64.462.6210° 7 kt1001.7RA BR
17:32 UTC64.462.6200° 8 kt1001.4VCTS RA BR
17:53 UTC6462200° 12 kt1000.7VCTS RA BR
18:10 UTC64.462.6200° 10 kt18999.3-RA BR
18:25 UTC66.262.6200° 13 kt999

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2003 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 22, 2003

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 2210:05 AM ESTF0York, SC0.225
February 2210:18 AM ESTF2Columbia, GA2.0150$310,000
February 222:41 PM ESTF0City of Suffolk, VA1.050$30,000
February 224:09 PM ESTF1Breathitt, KY0.57527$300,000
February 225:55 PM ESTF0Onslow, NC0.120

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.