EF1 tornado, Reed Creek to Townville, Georgia, August 26, 2008

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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

August 26, 2008

Touchdown

1:18 PM CDT (18:18 UTC)

Lifted

1:36 PM CDT (18:36 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

12.4 miles (20.0 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Hart and Anderson counties

Touchdown point

34.441, -82.920

Lift-off point

34.593, -82.871

Record number

0808261218-01

The remnants of Tropical Storm Fay stalled just west of the Appalachians and slowly dissipated. A line of mini-supercells developed southeast of the low. One tornado touched down in Georgia, and then moved into South Carolina where several more touched down.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Fay stalled just west of the Appalachians and slowly dissipated. A line of mini-supercells developed southeast of the low, resulting in several tornadoes over the Upstate and Northwest Piedmont of South Carolina during the afternoon hours of the 26th. A small amount of flash flooding also occurred, though the flooding was much worse in North Carolina.

This tornado touched down near Oak Crest Dr in the Reed Creek community in extreme northeast Hart County, then skipped across Lake Hartwell before tracking into extreme western Anderson County in South Carolina. The intermittent damage path was mainly limited to downed trees and power lines, although some minor structural damage was noted near Reed Creek.

This tornado touched down in Hart County, Georgia before skipping across Lake Hartwell and into extreme western Anderson County. The tornado then moved into Oconee County. The intermittent damage path was mainly limited to downed trees and power lines in Anderson County.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS GSP issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:01 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:33 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 14:04 UTC and running to 22:54 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:10 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.

Clemson/Oconee County (CEU), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Greer radar (KGSP), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:16 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 2008 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

14 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.