EF1 tornado, Lowell, Georgia, February 17, 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

February 17, 2008

Touchdown

3:52 PM EST (20:52 UTC)

Lifted

3:55 PM EST (20:55 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

4.0 miles (6.4 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Carroll County

Touchdown point

33.439, -85.087

Lift-off point

33.480, -85.038

Record number

0802171452-01

An intense closed upper low was rotating negatively from the southern plains toward the Ohio Valley. A strong cold front in advance of this system was moving across Mississippi into Alabama during the evening of the 17th. A wedge cold front was located across north and central Georgia. Very warm, unstable air was present across southern Alabama and southern Georgia, south of the wedge front. While only marginal instability was present, very strong shear was noted with a 60-70 knot low-level jet evident across Alabama and western and central Georgia. These systems combined to bring a strong squall line of thunderstorms to west and north Georgia during the mid and late afternoon hours. Most of the damage associated with this line of thunderstorms was straight-line wind damage. However, an isolated embedded EF1 tornado within a quasi-linear convective system did occur in west central Georgia in Carroll county. Meanwhile, along the southern end of the convective line, a long-lived supercell tracked from southern Alabama into southwest Georgia, south of Columbus, and continued on a near 100-mile track across west central and central Georgia from just south of Fort Benning to just northeast of Macon. Multiple tornadoes, ranging in strength from EF0 to EF1 were reported within broken segments along the track of this supercell, resulting in considerable damage to trees, power lines, and property. Several injuries were reported during the stronger portion of the tornadic supercell in Taylor and Crawford counties, southwest of Macon.

A survey conducted by the National Weather Service in Peachtree City, Georgia and the Carroll County Emergency Management Director confirmed that an EF1 tornado touched down in the southern Carroll county, four miles southwest of Lowell and tracked northeast, lifting approximately one mile northeast of Lowell. A single family home and a mobile home sustained major damage and another single family home sustained minor damage. Several barns and outbuildings were also damaged. Numerous trees and several power lines were blown down along the path of the tornado. The heaviest damage occurred on Ringer Road, Clem-Lowell Road, Miligan Creek Road, and Hamp Chappell Road. A total of three roads were blocked from downed trees. Much of this area of the county was left without power for several hours following the tornado.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:27 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:28 UTC and running to 00:47 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 19:42 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 Atlanta radar (KFFC), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:52 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

25 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.