Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2007

EF0 tornado, Blakely, Georgia, December 15, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 3.8 miles across Early County on December 15, 2007, touching down at 5:55 PM EST and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF0
Date
December 15, 2007
Touchdown
5:55 PM EST (22:55 UTC)
Lifted
6:00 PM EST (23:00 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
3.8 miles (6.2 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$30,000
County
Early County
Touchdown point
31.380, -85.035
Lift-off point
31.431, -85.010
Record number
0712151655-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An warm and unstable air mass collided along a strong cold front to produce reports of damaging thunderstorm winds and a pair of tornadoes across portions of southwest Georgia. Unfortunately, a fatality occurred when one of the tornadoes tossed a semi into an enbankment off Interstate 75 just northeast of Ashburn.

A weak tornado touched down near the intersection of County Road 3 and Freeman Road where a house's metal addition was destroyed along with a few uprooted trees. The tornado lifted briefly, then touched down again just south of State Road 39 and destroyed an old shed store. The debris was strewn across the road as the tornado traveled northeast. Before the tornado dissipated, it damaged a mobile home.

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

The warnings

17 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:38 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:07 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:47 UTC and running to 02:48 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:47 UTC02:48 UTCTornado WatchTAE
22:38 UTC23:07 UTCTornado WarningTAE
00:31 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTAE
00:58 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTAE

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 19:53 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), 12:00Z

10.9 hours before the tornado, 131 km from the path. December 15, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-12-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 39 joules per kilogram, CIN -96, lifted condensation level 636 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-12-15The 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 130 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
39 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-96 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
636 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
130 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
206 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 00:00Z

1.1 hours after it, 131 km from the path. December 16, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-12-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 641 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 544 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-12-16The 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 306 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 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
641 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
885 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
544 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
306 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
344 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.2
Supercell composite
5.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Blakely (BIJ), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:04 UTC73.471.6160° 5 kt1007.1VCTSRA
21:23 UTC73.473.4180° 7 kt1006.8VCTSRA
21:43 UTC73.473.4190° 6 kt141007.1TSRA
22:03 UTC73.473.4180° 6 kt1006.4
22:22 UTC73.473.4160° 6 kt1006.1VCTSRA
22:42 UTC73.473.4150° 6 kt1005.4+RA
23:04 UTC73.473.4170° 9 kt171005.4+RA
23:22 UTC75.273.4170° 11 kt181005.1RA
23:42 UTC75.273.4240° 8 kt161006.4+RA
00:03 UTC73.471.6260° 7 kt1006.8+RA
00:23 UTC73.473.4260° 6 kt1007.1+RA
00:42 UTC73.471.6290° 5 kt1007.1+RA

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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:55 UTCTORNADO 02 Nw BlakelyEarly, GASEVERAL HOMES DAMAGED BY TORNADO JUST NW OF BLAKELY ON HWY 39.
22:55 UTCTORNADO2 Nw BlakelyEarly, GASEVERAL HOMES DAMAGED BY POSSIBLE TORNADO JUST NW OF BLAKELY ON HWY 39.
01:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG8 Ssw Hoggard MillBaker, GAMANY TREES DOWN, 2 STORAGE SHEDS DESTROYED ON HWY 253 NEAR THE BAKER-DECATUR COUNTY LINE.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of December 15, 2007

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 157:39 AM CSTEF0Tyler, TX0.350$12,000
December 159:03 PM ESTEF0Worth, GA3.975$750,000
December 159:20 PM ESTEF1Turner, GA3.51251$1.3 million
December 159:30 PM ESTEF1Wilcox, GA0.5100$5,000
December 1510:18 PM ESTEF0Dodge, GA0.525$25,000
December 1510:41 PM ESTEF2Treutlen, GA3.5200$100,000

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.