Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2004

F0 tornado, Valdosta, Georgia, September 5, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Lowndes County on September 5, 2004, touching down at 4:15 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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
September 5, 2004
Touchdown
4:15 PM EDT (20:15 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Lowndes County
Touchdown point
30.950, -83.430
Lift-off point
30.950, -83.430
Record number
540

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado briefly touched down and uprooted several trees. One tree was hurled into a garage. Reported by the public.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:37 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.

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

8.3 hours before the tornado, 103 km from the path. September 5, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2004-09-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 380 joules per kilogram, CIN -220, lifted condensation level 807 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 12:00Z on 2004-09-05The 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 -11 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 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
380 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-220 J/kg
Surface CAPE
353 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
807 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-11 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
15 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.7 hours after it, 103 km from the path. September 6, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2004-09-06Temperature 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 -2760, lifted condensation level 1075 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 00:00Z on 2004-09-06The 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 76 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2760 J/kg
Surface CAPE
68 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1075 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
76 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
168 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Moody Afb/Valdosta (VAD), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:55 UTC89.673.450° 16 kt251008.5
19:50 UTC8673.450° 17 kt241008.5RA
19:55 UTC7769.880° 13 kt301010.2+TSRA
20:09 UTC71.669.880° 20 kt301009.8+TSRA
20:28 UTC73.469.860° 12 kt211009.1-RA
20:55 UTC73.471.650° 14 kt201008.8-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 September 5, 2004

26 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 55:05 AM EDTF0Saint Johns, FL5.075$10,000
September 56:05 AM EDTF0Marion, FL1.075
September 58:10 AM EDTF0Clay, FL1.075
September 59:20 AM EDTF0Flagler, FL0.575
September 59:25 AM EDTF0Saint Johns, FL3.075$80,000
September 52:30 PM EDTF0Suwannee, FL0.575
September 53:13 PM EDTF0Putnam, FL0.575
September 53:06 PM CDTF0Woodbury, IA12.0100$10,000
September 53:20 PM CDTF2Otter Tail, MN4.0100$250,000
September 55:08 PM CDTF0Dickinson, IA0.150
September 55:15 PM CDTF0Jackson, MN2.050$2,000
September 56:50 PM EDTF0Putnam, FL10.075
September 57:00 PM EDTF0Alachua, FL5.075
September 56:04 PM CDTF1Greene, IA2.040$50,000
September 56:15 PM CDTF0Greene, IA0.525
September 56:40 PM CDTF0Pierce, WI1.025
September 57:15 PM CDTF0Hamilton, IA0.220
September 58:30 PM EDTF0McIntosh, GA0.350
September 57:52 PM CDTF0Warren, IA0.220
September 58:05 PM CDTF0Barron, WI0.325
September 58:48 PM CDTF0Lucas, IA2.050$70,000
September 58:51 PM CDTF0Polk, IA0.525$10,000
September 59:06 PM CDTF1Story, IA2.740$30,000
September 59:17 PM CDTF1Marshall, IA3.530$10,000
September 59:17 PM CDTF0Marshall, IA3.025$20,000
September 512:05 AM EDTF0Liberty, GA0.540

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.