Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2008

EF1 tornado, Roberta, Georgia, February 17, 2008

Name: EF1 tornado, Roberta, Georgia, February 17, 2008
Start: 2008-02-17T23:18:00.000Z
End: 2008-02-17T23:33:00.000Z
Location: Roberta, Georgia

This EF1 tornado ran 10.0 miles across Crawford County on February 17, 2008, touching down at 6:18 PM EST and reaching 250 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 8, and did $550,000 of property damage.

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.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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: EF1
Date: February 17, 2008
Touchdown: 6:18 PM EST (23:18 UTC)
Lifted: 6:33 PM EST (23:33 UTC)
On the ground: 15 minutes
Path length: 10.0 miles (16.1 km)
Path width: 250 yards (229 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 8
Property damage: $550,000
County: Crawford County
Touchdown point: 32.659, -84.093
Lift-off point: 32.761, -83.971
Record number: 0802171718-01

The damage survey

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 96 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

What the Weather Service recorded

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.

An aerial and ground survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office of Peachtree City, Georgia and the Georgia State Patrol concluded that the same supercell thunderstorm that spawned a tornado in Alabama, tracked across Stewart, Chattahoochee, Marion, and Taylor counties, continued into Crawford county. The tornado entered the county five to six miles southwest of Roberta, tracked just north of downtown Roberta, crossed U.S. Highway 341 and continued to a point approximately four miles northeast of Roberta, where it finally lifted. The tornado reached its strongest intensity while passing through Crawford county as an EF1. The damage path was about 10 miles long and at various points along the path was 250 yards wide. Significant damage was reported across the county as a result of the tornado. The tornado destroyed nine structures and damaged three others, most of which were manufactured homes. The most significant damage occurred along Walker Chapel Road and Felton Road, southwest of Roberta, and northeast of Roberta along Salem Church Road. Six injuries, two of which were critical, were reported from the damaged mobile homes in the area of Felton Road. Numerous trees and power lines were downed along the path of the tornado as well, particularly along Georgia Highway 137/128 southwest of Roberta. While the supercell continued into Bibb county, the survey concluded that there was no conclusive evidence that the tornado remained on the ground into Bibb county.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Atlanta, GA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Feb 17, 6:00 PM EST, 18 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Feb 17, 6:00 PM EST, 18 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PEACHTREE CITY GA
600 PM EST SUN FEB 17 2008

.SHORT TERM /TONIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT/...
AREA OF SHOWERS WITH EMBEDDED TSTORMS PUSHING ACROSS NORTH GA THIS
AFTERNOON ...BUT WATCHING INTENSE LINE OF STORMS MOVING ACROSS EAST
CENTRAL ALABAMA. THIS LINE WILL BE OUR WORRY THROUGH THE REST OF THE
AFTERNOON INTO THIS EVENING AS IT MOVES ACROSS CENTRAL GEORGIA.
CURRENT TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF WESTCENTAL GA TIL 9 PM...MAY
NEED TO BE EXTENDED A BIT FARTHER NORTH AND EAST. MODELS CONTINUE TO
SHOW COLD FRONT MOVING ACROSS CWA OVERNIGHT..PUSHING INTO SOUTHEAST
GEORGIA MONDAY MORNING. WILL TAPPER POPS FROM SLIGHT CHANCE NORTH
CENTRAL TO LIKELY SOUTHEAST PORTION DURING THE MORNING...THEN ENDING
ALL PRECIP BY AFTERNOON. HOWEVER MODELS CONTINUE TO SHOW WEAK
IMPULSE SKIRTING ACROSS THE TN VALLEY MONDAY NIGHT THAT MAY SPIT OUR
A FEW FLURRIES ACROSS EXTREME NORTHERN COUNTIES. OTHERWISE SURFACE
HIGH PRESSURE BECOME ESTABLISHED OVER THE CWA TUESDAY WITH DRY
FORECAST CONTINUING THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT.

COOLER AIRMASS SETTLES IN OVER THE STATE DURING THE SHORT TERM
PERIOD...WITH HIGHS GENERALLY BACK TO MORE NORMAL LEVELS AND LOWS
RUNNING A TAD BELOW.

.LONG TERM /WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY/...
SURFACE HIGH SHIFTS EAST BECOMING CENTERED OFF THE GEORGIA COAST
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON AS A COLD FRONT DROPS SOUTHEAST FROM THE TN
VALLEY REGION. EXTENDED PROGS SIMILAR WITH SOME INCREASE IN DEEPER
MOISTURE ACROSS EXTREME NORTH GEORGIA WEDNESDAY NIGHT...THEN
ACROSS ALL OF THE CWA THURSDAY AS THE BOUNDARY DRIFTS ACROSS THE
AREA. LATEST GFS SHOW BOUNDARY MEANDERING ACROSS CENTRAL GA
THURSDAY NIGHT BEFORE A WAVE DEVELOPS AND MOVES NORTHEAST ALONG IT
ON FRIDAY. MODELS MAINTAIN SOME SEMBLANCE OF THIS BOUNDARY
ACROSS THE CWA INTO SATURDAY BEFORE LIFTING IT NORTHWARD AS A
STRONGER COLD FRONT APPROACHES FROM THE WEST SUNDAY. WITH ALL
SAID...WILL NEED TO KEEP AT LEAST CHANCE CATEGORY POPS ACROSS MUCH
OF THE CWA THROUGH THE PERIOD. MILD TEMPS IN THE CARDS THROUGH THE
EXTENDED PERIOD WITH HIGHS RUNNING AT OR SLIGHTLY ABOVE NORMAL
LEVELS.

&&

.AVIATION...AREA OF RAIN AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE TO PUSH
ACROSS GEORGIA THIS EVENING. SOME THUNDERSTORMS ON LEADING EDGE OF
LINE COULD BE SEVERE...AND AN ISOLATED TORNADO IS POSSIBLE. CEILINGS
AND VISIBILITY GENERALLY MVFR IN RAIN...EXCEPT LOCALLY IFR IN
HEAVIER RAIN AND THUNDERSTORMS. CEILINGS IMPROVING TO SCATTERED 4 TO
5THSD FT AFTER 06Z OVER NORTHWEST GA...LINGERING MVFR OVER CENTRAL
SECTIONS UNTIL AROUND 12Z. WINDS SOUTH TO SOUTHEAST WITH GUSTS TO 25
KT...GRADUALLY BECOMING SOUTH TO SOUTHWEST 10 TO 15KT OVERNIGHT.

&&

.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
ATHENS          50  59  35  54  32 /  80  20  10  10   5
ATLANTA         48  54  34  54  37 /  60  10  10  10   5
BLAIRSVILLE     43  53  28  46  28 /  60   5  10  10   5
CARTERSVILLE    44  55  29  53  30 /  50   5  10  10   5
COLUMBUS        55  63  36  60  35 /  70  20   5  10   5
GAINESVILLE     46  55  32  52  34 /  70  10  10  10   5
MACON           57  62  34  59  31 /  80  40  10  10   5
ROME            46  57  34  55  32 /  40   0  10  10   5
PEACHTREE CITY  49  57  30  56  28 /  70  10  10  10   5
VIDALIA         61  68  35  60  31 /  80  70   0   5   5

&&

.FFC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
WIND ADVISORY UNTIL 10 PM EST THIS EVENING FOR THE FOLLOWING
ZONES: BARTOW...CATOOSA...CHATTOOGA...CHEROKEE...DADE...DAWSON...
FANNIN...FLOYD...GILMER...GORDON...LUMPKIN...MURRAY...PICKENS...
TOWNS...UNION...WALKER...WHITE...WHITFIELD.

&&

49/41

Hazardous weather outlook, Feb 17, 6:01 AM EST, 12 hours 17 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PEACHTREE CITY GA
601 AM EST SUN FEB 17 2008

GAZ001>009-011>016-019>025-027-030>039-041>062-066>076-078>086-
089>098-102>113-181115-
BALDWIN-BANKS-BARROW-BARTOW-BIBB-BLECKLEY-BUTTS-CARROLL-CATOOSA-
CHATTAHOOCHEE-CHATTOOGA-CHEROKEE-CLARKE-CLAYTON-COBB-COWETA-
CRAWFORD-CRISP-DADE-DAWSON-DEKALB-DODGE-DOOLY-DOUGLAS-EMANUEL-
FANNIN-FAYETTE-FLOYD-FORSYTH-GILMER-GLASCOCK-GORDON-GREENE-
GWINNETT-HALL-HANCOCK-HARALSON-HARRIS-HEARD-HENRY-HOUSTON-JACKSON-
JASPER-JEFFERSON-JOHNSON-JONES-LAMAR-LAURENS-LUMPKIN-MACON-
MADISON-MARION-MERIWETHER-MONROE-MONTGOMERY-MORGAN-MURRAY-
MUSCOGEE-NEWTON-NORTH FULTON-OCONEE-OGLETHORPE-PAULDING-PEACH-
PICKENS-PIKE-POLK-PULASKI-PUTNAM-ROCKDALE-SCHLEY-SOUTH FULTON-
SPALDING-STEWART-SUMTER-TALBOT-TALIAFERRO-TAYLOR-TELFAIR-TOOMBS-
TOWNS-TREUTLEN-TROUP-TWIGGS-UNION-UPSON-WALKER-WALTON-WARREN-
WASHINGTON-WEBSTER-WHEELER-WHITE-WHITFIELD-WILCOX-WILKES-
WILKINSON-
601 AM EST SUN FEB 17 2008

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTH AND CENTRAL GEORGIA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT
ISOLATED SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED LATE THIS AFTERNOON
AND EARLY TONIGHT ACROSS PORTIONS OF NORTH AND CENTRAL GEORGIA.

.SYNOPSIS...
A WEAK AREA OF HIGH PRESSURE WILL RIDGE DOWN THE APPALACHIAN
MOUNTAINS TODAY. A STRONG LOW PRESSURE LOCATED IN THE CENTRAL
PLAINS WILL MOVE NORTHEAST...ALLOWING A STRONG COLD FRONT TO
APPROACH THE REGION FROM THE WEST.

.PRIMARY HAZARDS...
THE PRIMARY HAZARDS ASSOCIATED WITH ANY THUNDERSTORM WILL BE
STRONG DAMAGING WINDS...LARGE HAIL...AND FREQUENT LIGHTNING.
ISOLATED TORNADOES ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THE BEST TIME FRAME FOR SEVERE
WEATHER IS ROUGHLY BETWEEN 3 P.M. AND MIDNIGHT.

.DISCUSSION...
A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS HAS DEVELOPED ALONG THE FRONT AND IS
EXPECTED TO MOVE INTO THE STATE LATE THIS AFTERNOON. CAPE VALUES
THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING SHOULD RISE TO BETWEEN 500 AND 800...
WITH LIFTED INDICES DROPPING TO BETWEEN MINUS 1 AND MINUS 3. THE
INSTABILITY COMBINED WITH STRONG LOW-LEVEL SHEAR...OR TURNING OF
THE WINDS WITH HEIGHT...WILL ALLOW SOME THUNDERSTORMS TO BECOME
SEVERE...WITH DAMAGING WINDS AND LARGE HAIL THE MAIN THREATS.
HOWEVER...ISOLATED TORNADOES CANNOT BE RULED OUT.

IN ADDITION...STRONG LOW-LEVEL WINDS AHEAD OF THE COLD FRONT WILL
BE ABLE TO MIX DOWN TO THE SURFACE IN THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS OF
THE NORTH GEORGIA MOUNTAINS...AND WILL RESULT IN STRONG GUSTY
WINDS THAT MAY BE ABLE TO DOWN TREES AND POWER LINES. THE BEST
TIME FRAME FOR THESE STRONG WINDS IS LATE THIS MORNING THROUGH
LATE THIS AFTERNOON.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY
THERE IS A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS FRIDAY AFTERNOON. OTHERWISE...NO
HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTERS SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR ACTIVATION ESPECIALLY LATE THIS
AFTERNOON AND EVENING ACROSS NORTH AND CENTRAL GEORGIA.

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Feb 17, 5:08 PM EST, 1 hour 10 minutes before

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Special weather statement, Feb 17, 5:20 PM EST, 58 minutes before

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Local storm report, Feb 17, 5:21 PM EST, 57 minutes before

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Local storm report, Feb 17, 6:10 PM EST, 8 minutes before

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Local storm report, Feb 17, 6:14 PM EST, 4 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PEACHTREE CITY GA
614 PM EST SUN FEB 17 2008

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0540 PM     FLASH FLOOD      TUCKER                  33.85N 84.22W
02/17/2008                   DEKALB             GA   LAW ENFORCEMENT

            STREET FLOODING AT SOUTH NORCROSS ROAD AND OLD NORCROSS
            ROAD.

&&

SBK

Special weather statement, Feb 17, 6:16 PM EST, 2 minutes before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PEACHTREE CITY GA
616 PM EST SUN FEB 17 2008

GAZ090>092-102>104-172345-
616 PM EST SUN FEB 17 2008

...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ALERT FOR 45 MPH WINDS IN SUMTER...WEBSTER...
STEWART...SCHLEY...CHATTAHOOCHEE AND MARION COUNTIES UNTIL 645 PM
EST...

AT 615 PM EST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
STRONG THUNDERSTORMS FROM MANTA TO 14 MILES SOUTH OF TROUTMAN...
MOVING EAST AT 45 MPH.

WIND GUSTS OF 45 MPH ARE LIKELY AS THESE STORMS MOVE ACROSS SUMTER...
WEBSTER...STEWART...SCHLEY...CHATTAHOOCHEE AND MARION COUNTIES
THROUGH 645 PM EST. SOME LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THESE STORMS
INCLUDE WESTVILLE...RENFROE...MANTA...LOUVALE...LUMPKIN...CUSSETA...
RICHLAND...TROUTMAN...BROOKLYN...BRANTLEY...BERGINSVILLE...WESTON...
BUENA VISTA...DUMAS AND TAZEWELL.

A TORNADO WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT. CONTINUE TO MONITOR NOAA WEATHER
RADIO...WEATHER.GOV OR OTHER MEDIA OUTLETS FOR FURTHER STATEMENTS OR
POSSIBLE WARNINGS ON THESE STORMS.

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.

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 12:00Z

11.3 hours before the tornado, 85 km from the path. February 17, 2008.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -89262 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1892 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 320 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 438 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 2.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 00:00Z

0.7 hours after it, 85 km from the path. February 18, 2008.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 56 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -32 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 85 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 775 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 70 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 504 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 730 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Thomaston (OPN), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:19 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2008 tornado in Georgia Every tornado in Georgia since 1950 Warnings in force in Georgia now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 17, 2008

25 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
February 17	12:00 AM CST	EF1	Barbour, AL	2.3	50		$75,000
February 17	1:30 AM CST	EF1	Saint Landry Parish, LA	5.6	125		$125,000
February 17	3:42 AM CST	EF1	Saint Helena Parish, LA	0.3	15		$30,000
February 17	3:55 AM CST	EF1	Tangipahoa Parish, LA	2.0	15		$15,000
February 17	4:25 AM CST	EF0	Washington Parish, LA	0.1	15		$8,000
February 17	5:05 AM CST	EF0	Washington Parish, LA	0.3	15		$20,000
February 17	11:59 AM CST	EF1	Escambia, FL	5.1	200		$750,000
February 17	12:14 PM CST	EF1	Santa Rosa, FL	2.1	75		$200,000
February 17	12:26 PM CST	EF2	Dallas, AL	7.6	400		$350,000
February 17	1:04 PM CST	EF2	Escambia, AL	14.4	500		$950,000
February 17	1:05 PM CST	EF1	Chilton, AL	1.2	200		$150,000
February 17	1:42 PM CST	EF1	Coosa, AL	10.8	100		$105,000
February 17	1:47 PM CST	EF0	Tallapoosa, AL	4.5	50		$10,000
February 17	2:03 PM CST	EF0	Clay, AL	1.6	50		$10,000
February 17	2:17 PM CST	EF1	Coffee, AL	1.2	100		$25,000
February 17	2:22 PM CST	EF1	Randolph, AL	14.7	150		$100,000
February 17	2:23 PM CST	EF1	Pike, AL	8.4	250		$60,000
February 17	2:24 PM CST	EF2	Lowndes, AL	11.0	225	10	$215,000
February 17	3:52 PM EST	EF1	Carroll, GA	4.0	150		$150,000
February 17	2:58 PM CST	EF3	Autauga, AL	14.7	440	50	$10 million
February 17	3:40 PM CST	EF2	Russell, AL to GA	17.1	1,000	4	$140,000
February 17	5:05 PM EST	EF0	Chattahoochee, GA	48.5	100		$310,000
February 17	4:17 PM CST	EF1	Barbour, AL	21.4	75		$35,000
February 17	4:38 PM CST	EF0	Barbour, AL	0.4	300		$6,000
February 17	7:01 PM EST	EF0	Jones, GA	2.4	50		$50,000

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.