Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2005

F0 tornado, Alma Bacon Co Arpt, Georgia, December 28, 2005

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Bacon County on December 28, 2005, touching down at 7:45 PM EST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $200,000 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 28, 2005
Touchdown
7:45 PM EST (00:45 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$200,000
County
Bacon County
Touchdown point
31.470, -82.580
Lift-off point
31.470, -82.580
Record number
508

What the Weather Service recorded

Near White pine Highway and Sessoms Rd. Tornado touched down uprooting oak trees with one in the side of a house collapsing back porch. A second house was damaged with the roof ripped off. A nearby mobile home was pushed off its foundation. wood frame house suffered roof damage with several windows smashed. Debris was scattered in all directions. Source Mr. Charles Carter EMA Director. Touchdown at 31 28.738N 82 35.842W lifted at 31 29.224N 82 33.808W.

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

The warnings

7 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:38 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:21 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:53 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:53 UTC03:00 UTCTornado WatchJAX
00:38 UTC01:21 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 20:04 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), 00:00Z

0.8 hours before the tornado, 137 km from the path. December 29, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2005-12-29Temperature 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 -85918, lifted condensation level 965 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2005-12-29The 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 290 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 60 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
-85918 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
965 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
60 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
290 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
326 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 12:00Z

11.2 hours after it, 137 km from the path. December 29, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2005-12-29Temperature 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 -9304, lifted condensation level 1080 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2005-12-29The 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 -2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 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
-9304 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1080 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
177 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
00:45 UTCTORNADO8 Sw AlmaBacon, GAPOSSIBLE TORNADO UPROOTED MANY TREES...ONE OF WHICH FELL THROUGH ONE SIDE OF A HOME. ONE MOBILE HOME LIFTED OFF OF FOUNDATION. DOUBLE-WIDE MOBILE HOME DAMAGED ON ONE SIDE WHEN A SHEET OF PLYWOOD WAS DRIVEN THROUGH THE ST
00:56 UTCTSTM WND GST 452 W AlmaBacon, GA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of December 28, 2005

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 283:59 PM ESTF0Pulaski, GA0.5200$100,000
December 284:04 PM ESTF1Johnson, GA4.0300$500,000
December 284:30 PM ESTF0Wilcox, GA2.550$120,000
December 284:41 PM ESTF0Laurens, GA0.550$1,000
December 284:50 PM ESTF0Worth, GA0.225
December 285:00 PM ESTF0Worth, GA0.330$10,000
December 285:05 PM ESTF1Burke, GA4.00$10,000
December 285:20 PM ESTF0Mitchell, GA0.225
December 285:50 PM ESTF0Colquitt, GA0.225
December 285:54 PM ESTF0Burke, GA4.00
December 285:55 PM ESTF0Irwin, GA0.530$50,000

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.