Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2007

EF0 tornado, Waresboro, Georgia, September 21, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Ware County on September 21, 2007, touching down at 4:45 AM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
September 21, 2007
Touchdown
4:45 AM EDT (08:45 UTC)
Lifted
5:00 AM EDT (09:00 UTC)
On the ground
15 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Ware County
Touchdown point
31.254, -82.468
Lift-off point
31.262, -82.474
Record number
0709210245-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Low pressure moved west-northwest across the Florida penisula and into the eastern Gulf of Mexico. On Wednesday night 9/20-21/2007 a rainband developed over central Florida and moved rapidly northward into north Florida and southeast Georgia.

Approximately 1500 ft damage path extending from the south-southeast to the north-northwest and ending near Lovett Road and Landrum Lane. Twelve structures had slight to moderate damage to roofs and skirting. Most structures were mobile homes and outbuildings. A few trees and power lines were also blown down.

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

The warnings

9 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:36 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
04:38 UTC05:14 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAX
08:36 UTC09:15 UTCTornado WarningJAX

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. The outlook in force was issued at 05:56 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.

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z

8.8 hours before the tornado, 112 km from the path. September 21, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-09-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2537 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 634 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-09-21The 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 23 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 knots.1939Sfc1 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
2537 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3595 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
634 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
23 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
70 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 12:00Z

3.2 hours after it, 112 km from the path. September 21, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-09-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 733 joules per kilogram, CIN -35, lifted condensation level 951 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, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-09-21The 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 127 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.193958Sfc1 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
733 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-35 J/kg
Surface CAPE
601 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
951 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
127 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
165 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Waycross/Ware Co. (AYS), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
07:00 UTC73.471.660° 6 kt1012.5
07:20 UTC73.471.650° 6 kt1012.2
07:40 UTC73.471.660° 8 kt1011.9
08:00 UTC73.471.650° 11 kt1011.9
08:20 UTC73.471.660° 7 kt1011.9
08:40 UTC73.471.670° 9 kt141011.9
09:20 UTC69.86880° 4 kt1011.5
09:21 UTC69.86890° 4 kt1011.5
09:40 UTC69.86870° 4 kt1011.5
10:00 UTC69.86850° 5 kt1011.9
10:20 UTC69.8680° 0 kt1011.5
10:40 UTC69.869.80° 0 kt1012.5

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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
08:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGWaresboroWare, GAPOWERLINES DOWN ON LOVETT RD.
09:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 Ssw AlmaWare, GATREE DOWN ON PINE VIEW RD. TIME IS ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR.
09:00 UTCTORNADO1 Nne WaresboroWare, GAAPPROX 1500 FT DAMAGE PATH FROM SSE TO NNW ENDING NEAR LOVETT RD AND LANDRUM LN. 12 STRUCTURES WITH SLIGHT TO MODERATE DAMAGE. MOST STRUCTURES WERE MOBILE HOMES AND OUTBUILDINGS WITH ROOF AND SKIRTING DAMAGE. A FEW TREES

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 September 21, 2007

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 215:34 PM CDTEF0Barbour, AL0.420

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.