Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2008

EF0 tornado, Blackshear, Georgia, December 11, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Pierce County on December 11, 2008, touching down at 9:55 AM EST and reaching 50 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
December 11, 2008
Touchdown
9:55 AM EST (14:55 UTC)
Lifted
9:58 AM EST (14:58 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.7 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Pierce County
Touchdown point
31.285, -82.234
Lift-off point
31.291, -82.226
Record number
0812110855-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A squall line moved east across north Florida over night on Wednesday 12/10 and during the day on Thursday 12/11.

The tornado touched down near 1421 College Avenue destroying a vinyl storage shed. A more substantial wood shed next to it was undamaged and no significant damage to vegetation was observed in this vicinity. In this area the event was a low level EF-0 event with winds estimated near 65 mph. The system next moved over Burney Branch Lake which allowed the circulation to intensify with winds now closer to an upper end EF-0 and estimated to be near 85 mph. The tornado made landfall near 1101 Lakeview Drive where several trees were snapped. The funnel moved over several lakeside homes and their backyards in this area. A vinyl fence was blown down and a wooden child���s backyard play set was uprooted and overturned. At the northeastern edge of the lake the most substantial damage occurred when the roof of a dock was ripped off and blown onto the roof of a home at 919 Edgewood Circle. The home���s roof was destroyed opening the contents to the weather.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 10:48 UTC and running to 17:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:14 UTC08:00 UTCLake Wind AdvisoryJAX
10:48 UTC17:00 UTCTornado WatchJAX
14:48 UTC15:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAX
15:23 UTC15:55 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:35 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), 12:00Z

2.9 hours before the tornado, 101 km from the path. December 11, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2008-12-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 286 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 567 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 2008-12-11The 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 205 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
286 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
396 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
567 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
205 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
241 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
1.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z

9.1 hours after it, 101 km from the path. December 12, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2008-12-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 45 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 985 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 00:00Z on 2008-12-12The 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 192 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 86 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
45 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
109 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
985 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
86 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
192 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
177 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
14:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Ese MillwoodWare, GATREES AND POWER LINES BLOWN DOWN AT THE ALL HAZARDS NOAA WEATHER RADIO TRANSMITTER SITE.
14:47 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Ssw BlackshearPierce, GAWIND DAMAGE REPORTED FROM YOUMANS CHAPEL ROAD AND DEAN STILL ROAD NORTHEAST TO LAKEVIEW DRIVE. TREES DOWN ACROSS THE AREA. POSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE.
14:50 UTCTORNADO 01 Se BlackshearPierce, GAA NWS STORM SURVEY INDICATED AN EFO TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN. TREES DOWN ACROSS THE AREA.
15:05 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Ese WaycrossWare, GAUTILITY POLES SNAPPED AND STREET LIGHTS DOWN NEAR INTERSECTION OF US 1 AND US 82.
15:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 S HortenseBrantley, GAA FEW TREES DOWN NEAR HIGHWAY 301 WITH POWER OUTAGES TO 100 CUSTOMERS WAS REPORTED BY UTILITY COMPANY. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR.
15:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 Ne New LacyAppling, GACHURCH STEEPLE WAS BLOWN OFF AT INTERSECTION OF RED OAK ROAD AND HIGHWAY 203. REPORTS OF POWERLINES AND TREES DOWN AT INTERSECTION OF RED OAK ROAD AND REESE ROAD. ALSO SMALL OUT BUILDINGS BLOWN OVER. TIME ESTIMATED BASED
15:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGBaxleyAppling, GAA COUPLE OF POWERLINES DOWN AND MINOR STRUCTURE DAMAGE TO A BUILDING AS A SQUALL OF MOSTLY SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS PUSHED THROUGH THE AREA.
15:25 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 W WaynesvilleBrantley, GAA COUPLE OF TREES DOWN BETWEEN NAHUNTA AND WAYNESVILLE REPORTED BY UTILITY COMPANY. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR.
15:25 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Nw JesupWayne, GAA POWERLINE WAS REPORTED DOWN NEAR NORTH VIEW DRIVE. TIME IS ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of December 11, 2008

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 1110:15 AM ESTEF0Duval, FL0.450
December 111:26 PM ESTEF0Newberry, SC3.540$4,000
December 113:50 PM ESTEF1Cabarrus, NC2.430

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.