F3 tornado, Donalsonville to Enterprise, Georgia, March 22, 2005

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F3

Date

March 22, 2005

Touchdown

1:32 PM EST (18:32 UTC)

Path length

18.0 miles (29.0 km)

Path width

1,250 yards (1143 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

18

Property damage

$7.0 million

Counties

Seminole and Miller counties

Touchdown point

31.050, -84.920

Lift-off point

31.130, -84.680

Record number

666

A tornado touched down just south of U.S. Highway 84. It destroyed seven mobile homes and damaged 17 others. Many trees and power lines were down. A woman was killed when the tornado demolished her mobile home. Eight people suffered minor injuries. The storm survey was conducted by the NWS Tallahassee WCM and SOO.

The tornado, which crossed from Seminole County into Miller County, quickly intensified as it paralleled Highway 91. It damaged nearly 100 homes and destroyed 25 others along its path. It struck a 120+ acre farm on Nobles Road, destroying several storage buildings, welding shop, farrowing house and implement shed, and heavily damaging the family residence. Several irrigation pivots were damaged or destroyed. Many trees and power lines were down. Ten people were injured, two of those critically. The tornado weakened as it approached County Road 45. It continued its northeastward trek across County Road 310 and U.S. Highway 27, then dissipated about three miles southeast of Colquitt. The storm survey was conducted by the NWS Tallahassee WCM and SOO.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:32 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:15 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:19 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 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.

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

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.