Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2006
F1 tornado, Fitzgerald to Red Bluff, Georgia, December 25, 2006
From Fitzgerald to Red Bluff, this F1 tornado ran 11.3 miles across Ben Hill County on December 25, 2006, touching down at 6:30 AM EST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $300,000 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 25, 2006
- Touchdown
- 6:30 AM EST (11:30 UTC)
- Path length
- 11.3 miles (18.1 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $300,000
- County
- Ben Hill County
- Touchdown point
- 31.720, -83.180
- Lift-off point
- 31.770, -83.000
- Record number
- 1069
What the Weather Service recorded
Isolated supercells formed ahead of a squall line that moved across southern Georgia during the predawn hours of Christmas Day.
The tornado touched down four miles east of Fitzgerald just south of Georgia Highway 206 and U.S. Highway 319. There were several areas along its northeasterly track where trees had been twisted off at approximately 15 feet above ground level. Debris from the initial touchdown was discovered three miles due north. The tornado touched down four times as evidenced by the sporadic damage. Two homes were destroyed, two homes were heavily damaged, and three irrigation pivots were destroyed. The tornado finally lifted at an old recreation area known as Red Bluff where roof damage was reported.
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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:48 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), 00:00Z
11.5 hours before the tornado, 189 km from the path. December 25, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 4 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -141 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 462 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 43 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 13 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 148 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 402 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.3 K/km
Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 12:00Z
0.5 hours after it, 189 km from the path. December 25, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 233 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -29 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 188 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 470 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 49 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 18 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 136 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 113 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.2
- Supercell composite
- 1.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.2 K/km
The surface observations
Douglas_muni_arpt (DQH), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:02 UTC | 66.2 | 64.4 | 150° 5 kt | 1010.2 | ||
| 10:21 UTC | 68 | 66.2 | 150° 7 kt | 1009.8 | ||
| 11:01 UTC | 69.8 | 66.2 | 140° 6 kt | 1008.8 | ||
| 11:21 UTC | 69.8 | 66.2 | 150° 8 kt | 1008.5 | ||
| 11:41 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 150° 9 kt | 17 | 1008.1 | |
| 12:01 UTC | 69.8 | 66.2 | 160° 10 kt | 18 | 1008.1 | |
| 12:22 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 160° 10 kt | 19 | 1008.1 | |
| 12:42 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 190° 7 kt | 15 | 1008.8 | |
| 13:01 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 160° 7 kt | 1008.5 | ||
| 13:22 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 200° 7 kt | 1008.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Fitzgerald | Ben Hill, GA | 2 HOMES DESTROYED...2 HOMES SEVERLY DAMAGED...3 IRRIGATION SYSTEMS DESTROYED...MULTIPLE TREES UPROOTED |
| 12:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Scotland | Telfair, GA | SEVERAL TREES BLOWN DOWN IN SCOTLAND. ONE TREE BLOCKED OAK RIDGE ROAD. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of December 25, 2006
5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 25 | 8:06 AM EST | F2 | Columbia, FL | 2.7 | 300 | 1 | ||
| December 25 | 11:20 AM EST | F2 | Pasco, FL | 0.8 | 100 | 2 | $3.5 million | |
| December 25 | 12:20 PM EST | F0 | Lake, FL | 0.3 | 50 | $250,000 | ||
| December 25 | 1:22 PM EST | F2 | Volusia, FL | 2.8 | 50 | 5 | $2.5 million | |
| December 25 | 1:40 PM EST | F2 | Volusia, FL | 2.7 | 80 | 6 | $50 million |
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.