Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2005

F1 tornado, Hoboken, Georgia, December 5, 2005

This F1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Brantley County on December 5, 2005, touching down at 4:30 PM EST and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
December 5, 2005
Touchdown
4:30 PM EST (21:30 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Brantley County
Touchdown point
31.180, -82.130
Lift-off point
31.180, -82.130
Record number
507

What the Weather Service recorded

A bowing squall line intercepted a northeast moving cell east of the squall line. The merge increased surface inflow into the leading cell and produced a brief mini-supercell tornado near Hoboken. At 430 pm, a trained storm spotter reported that the front part of a home was blown off along Highway 121 in Hoboken. A shed was also damaged and trees were sheared off. An ambulance was dispatched to a possible injury but no injuries were reported at the scene. An NWS Storm Survey conducted the following day revealed primarily F0 damage with some F1 damage in Hoboken. Numerous trees were snapped which caused damage to many homes and sheds. A news broadcast the following day in Hoboken (Channel 4 Jacksonville) showed a mobile home pushed 15 feet off of its foundation, reported major damage to 9 homes and minor damage to 40 homes in Hoboken. Several roofs were stripped off as well.

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
16:00 UTC00:00 UTCLake Wind AdvisoryJAX
21:16 UTC22:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:17 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

9.5 hours before the tornado, 86 km from the path. December 5, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z 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 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -89403, lifted condensation level 953 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 2005-12-05The 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 197 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-89403 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
953 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
197 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
197 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
1.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z

2.5 hours after it, 86 km from the path. December 6, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2005-12-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 276 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 608 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 2005-12-06The 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 176 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
276 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
269 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
608 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
176 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
141 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:28 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
20:45 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 S ManorWare, GAFUNNEL CLOUD REPORTED BY SPOTTER ABOUT 5 MILES SOUTH OF MANOR.
21:27 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD4 W HobokenBrantley, GA
21:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGHobokenBrantley, GAFRONT OF HOUSE BLOWN OFF ALONG HIGHWAY 121 IN HOBOKEN. SHED DAMAGED. PINE TREE SHEARED OFF. AMBULANCE DISPATCHED TO POSSIBLE INJURY. POSSIBLE TORNADO.
21:30 UTCTORNADOHobokenBrantley, GAPRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF F0 OR WEAK F1 TORNADO ON NORTH SIDE OF HOBOKEN. MAINLY TREE DAMAGE. ONE SHED SUSTAINED SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE. DAMAGE TO SEVERAL HOMES CONSISTING OF SHINGLE DAMAGE AND DAMAGE FROM FALLING TREES.
21:30 UTCTORNADOHobokenBrantley, GAPRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF F0 OR WEAK F1 TORNADO ON NORTH SIDE OF HOBOKEN. MAINLY TREE DAMAGE. ONE SHED SUSTAINED SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE. MINOR DAMAGE TO SEVERAL HOMES CONSISTING OF SHINGLE DAMAGE AND DAMAGE FROM FALLING TREE

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 5, 2005

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 511:45 AM ESTF1Worth, GA1.1752$750,000
December 51:10 PM ESTF1Wakulla, FL4.0100$1.3 million
December 51:40 PM ESTF0Leon, FL0.230
December 52:45 PM ESTF0Lanier, GA0.230
December 53:30 PM ESTF2Clinch, GA3.0100

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.