Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2004

F1 tornado, Suttons Corner to Carnegie, Georgia, May 2, 2004

From Suttons Corner to Carnegie, this F1 tornado ran 8.0 miles across Clay and Randolph counties on May 2, 2004, touching down at 11:30 AM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 6, and did $550,000 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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
May 2, 2004
Touchdown
11:30 AM EDT (15:30 UTC)
Path length
8.0 miles (12.9 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
6
Property damage
$550,000
Counties
Clay and Randolph counties
Touchdown point
31.600, -84.850
Lift-off point
31.720, -84.730
Record number
1020

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down and destroyed three homes and damaged two others. It also toppled several trees and power lines. The tornado moved moved northeast into Randolph County. Reported by the Clay County EMA and WALB-TV Albany.

The tornado continued on a northeast track from Clay County, downing trees and power lines along its path through southern Randolph County. Before lifting, it destroyed a mobile home on County Road 6, off Fountain Bridge Road. Its six occupants sustained minor injuries. Reported by the Cuthbert Fire/EMS and Albany Herald.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 12:13 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.

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 12:00Z

3.5 hours before the tornado, 148 km from the path. May 2, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2004-05-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 372 joules per kilogram, CIN -50, lifted condensation level 781 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2004-05-02The 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 119 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.193958Sfc1 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
372 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-50 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1099 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
781 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
119 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
107 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
2.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 00:00Z

8.5 hours after it, 148 km from the path. May 3, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2004-05-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 145 joules per kilogram, CIN -77, lifted condensation level 876 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2004-05-03The 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 59 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.193958Sfc1 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
145 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-77 J/kg
Surface CAPE
378 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
876 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
59 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
137 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Albany Municipal (ABY), 58 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
13:53 UTC7471160° 10 kt1013.2
14:53 UTC7870170° 15 kt211013.5
15:04 UTC78.871.6180° 11 kt191013.5
15:12 UTC78.871.6180° 9 kt1013.5
15:53 UTC7871210° 9 kt1013.9
16:24 UTC73.471.6250° 14 kt201014.6+RA BR
16:27 UTC71.669.8270° 16 kt211014.6+RA BR
16:30 UTC71.669.8300° 21 kt261013.5+RA FG
16:41 UTC69.868260° 9 kt241014.6+RA FG
16:53 UTC7068260° 6 kt1014.6-RA BR
16:56 UTC69.868260° 6 kt1014.2-RA BR
17:06 UTC71.669.8250° 5 kt1014.6-RA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 2, 2004

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 23:55 PM CDTF0Schuyler, IL0.110
May 25:15 PM EDTF1Harnett, NC2.3300
May 27:27 PM EDTF1Madison, VA4.3150$10,000
May 210:30 PM EDTF1King and Queen, VA1.0100$30,000

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.