EF2 tornado, Newton to Sumner, Georgia, March 1, 2007

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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 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. 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.

Rating

EF2

Date

March 1, 2007

Touchdown

11:44 PM EST (04:44 UTC)

Lifted

12:17 AM EST (05:17 UTC)

On the ground

33 minutes

Path length

30.5 miles (49.1 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

6

Injuries

3

Property damage

$4.0 million

Crop damage

$500,000

Counties

Baker, Mitchell, Dougherty and Worth counties

Touchdown point

31.320, -84.448

Lift-off point

31.475, -83.980

Record number

0703012244-01

Severe thunderstorms developed during the afternoon of March 1 ahead of advancing warm front across southwest Georgia, producing several reports of wind damage. Later that evening into the predawn hours of March 2, a squall line formed ahead of a cold front, with several reports of wind damage and tornadoes across portions of southwest and south central Georgia. One of the tornadoes tore through a mobile home park just north of Newton, killing six and injuring three.

An EF-2 tornado touched down in rural Baker County west of Newton, then traveled rapidly northeast, and caused extensive damage to a mobile home park a mile north of Newton. Six people died and three were injured when their mobile homes were demolished by the tornado. A church was destroyed on State Highway 37 a few miles west of Newton. GEMA and FEMA damage assessments determined ten minor damaged homes, nine major damaged homes, and 18 destroyed homes. The tornado crossed into northern Mitchell County north of Baconton. A state of emergency was declared by the Governor.

The EF-2 tornado moved northeast from Baker County into Mitchell County just west of Baconton. GEMA and FEMA assessed 26 minor damaged homes, 25 major damaged homes, and two destroyed homes. Thirteen businesses sustained minor losses. Most of the damage occurred just north of Baconton on Gravel Hill Road in the Pleasant Grove community. Over 200 acres of pecan trees were uprooted. The tornado flipped over a semi on U.S. Highway 19 about four miles north of Baconton then crossed into southeastern Dougherty County. A state of emergency was declared by the Governor.

The EF-2 tornado continued on its northeast track from northern Mitchell County into southeastern Dougherty County. It ripped carports and roof shingles off several homes on County Line Road and Jenkins Road. It also snapped hundreds of trees before it crossed into western Worth County. Ten homes suffered minor damage and two were heavily damaged.

The EF-2 tornado moved into western Worth County from southeastern Dougherty County. It uprooted trees and damaged several mobile homes north of Bridgeboro before lifting.

This tornado, rated EF-2, was spawned from the same supercell thunderstorm that produced the earlier tornado in Worth County. It touched down near McCarty Road. A brick frame house sustained severe roof damage with a couple of exterior walls collapsing. Two vehicles parked outside were carried into a nearby field. Large oak trees were uprooted, with one falling on a house. One mobile home was flipped over and rolled into a nearby tree. The tornado then moved northeast into a forest and uprooted hundreds of pines. It flattened a house, causing two minor injuries, before lifting just west of State Highway 33.

An EF-2 tornado touched down on Sumner Lakes Road just south of Sumner. One mobile home was completely destroyed, with the debris blown several hundred yards away. The four occupants inside received warning of the approaching tornado and promptly vacated the home for a reinforced shelter. Of the two dozen structures that were damaged, half were heavily damaged. Numerous utility poles and trees in the path of the tornado were snapped.

The deaths

6 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.

6 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:38 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:45 UTC and running to 06:05 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, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:54 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 Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:46 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 2007 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

42 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.