Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2005

F0 tornado, Stockbridge, Georgia, December 4, 2005

This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Henry County on December 4, 2005, touching down at 5:19 PM EST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $150,000 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 4, 2005
Touchdown
5:19 PM EST (22:19 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$150,000
County
Henry County
Touchdown point
33.550, -84.270
Lift-off point
33.550, -84.250
Record number
601

What the Weather Service recorded

A storm survey conducted by the National Weather Service and the Henry County Emergency Manager determined that an F0 tornado had touched down in extreme western Henry county near Interstate-75 just south of Georgia Highway 138. The tornado then traveled east-northeast through the Willow Spring Subdivision to near Old Atlanta Road. The tornado path was approximately 1.0 mile long and 100 yards wide. Numerous trees were snapped off or blown down throughout the area, some causing damage to homes in the area. In addition, one vehicle was damaged by a fallen tree.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:24 UTC and running to 01:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:24 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchFFC
22:05 UTC22:21 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFFC

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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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.

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 12:00Z

10.3 hours before the tornado, 30 km from the path. December 4, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 12:00Z on 2005-12-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 400 joules per kilogram, CIN -25, lifted condensation level 616 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, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 12:00Z on 2005-12-04The 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 165 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 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
400 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-25 J/kg
Surface CAPE
343 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
616 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
165 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
118 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
1.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 00:00Z

1.7 hours after it, 30 km from the path. December 5, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 00:00Z on 2005-12-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 288 joules per kilogram, CIN -39, lifted condensation level 1108 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, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 00:00Z on 2005-12-05The 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 156 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 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
288 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-39 J/kg
Surface CAPE
134 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1108 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
156 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
181 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 35 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:19 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:25 UTCHAIL 1AlpharettaFulton, GA
21:35 UTCHAIL 0.753 Ene MadrasCoweta, GA
21:35 UTCHAIL 1.25DouglasvilleDouglas, GA
21:43 UTCHAIL 0.88AustellCobb, GA
21:45 UTCHAIL 1Lithia SpringsDouglas, GA
21:50 UTCHAIL 0.88TyroneFayette, GA
22:13 UTCHAIL 0.88JonesboroClayton, GA
22:24 UTCHAIL 1.25StockbridgeHenry, GA
22:35 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 Ene JonesboroHenry, GATWO TREES DOWN OFF WALT STEVENS ROAD NEAR THE HENRY COUNTY LINE AND GEORGIA HIGHWAY 138.
22:40 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 N StockbridgeHenry, GAFOUR TO FIVE TREES DOWN OFF OLD ATLANTA HIGHWAY ABOUT ONE MILE NORTH OF GEORGIA HIGHWAY 138. TWO HOMES WITH MINOR DAMAGE AND ONE VEHICLE DAMAGED.

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 4, 2005

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 43:56 PM HSTF0Honolulu, HI0.110

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.