F2 tornado, Unadilla, Georgia, December 31, 2006

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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F2

Date

December 31, 2006

Touchdown

3:45 PM EST (20:45 UTC)

Path length

0.5 miles (0.7 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$150,000

Crop damage

$250,000

County

Dooly County

Touchdown point

32.270, -83.730

Lift-off point

32.270, -83.730

Record number

1103

A major, closed upper low moved from Texas on December 29th into the Ohio Valley on December 31st. The system weakened considerably as it moved out of Texas, where a number of tornadoes occurred. However, the trailing trough still brought showers and thunderstorms to the southeast as it moved through the area on New Year's Eve. In the southern portion of this area, although instability was limited, shear was quite strong. As a result, a small thunderstorm spawned a tornado in northern Dooly county. This same cell continued to threaten areas further east, but no further tornadoes or damage was reported.

A survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, GA, concluded that a tornado touched down near the intersection of Snow Springs Road or Georgia Highway 230, just west-northwest of Unadilla, and traveled 1/2 mile to a point just east-northeast of Unadilla. While the tornado was initially determined to be an F0 tornado, it intensified to an F2 tornado before dissipating. The tornado first touched down in an open cotton field pushing over a 30-yard section of an irrigation system near Snow Springs Road and U.S. Highway 41. The tornado then moved east to northeast to the northeast side of Unadilla breaking trees, damaging signs, roofs, and billboards along its path. On the east side of Unadilla, three mobile homes were destroyed, several pecan trees were uprooted in a pecan orchard, and shingles were peeled from several homes in the area. The tornado dissipated in the area of Peavy Street and Peavy Lane. The tornado was determined to be approximately 50 yards wide at its widest point and traveled a distance of about 0.5 miles. One minor injury was reported at one of the destroyed mobile homes as a result of minor cuts, bruises, and scrapes from debris.

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

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:50 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 Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 57 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:43 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

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.