EF1 tornado, Carrollton, Georgia, February 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

February 26, 2008

Touchdown

6:10 AM EST (11:10 UTC)

Lifted

6:12 AM EST (11:12 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$7.0 million

County

Carroll County

Touchdown point

33.580, -85.028

Lift-off point

33.580, -84.993

Record number

0802260510-01

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 EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

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

A deep upper trough was moving from the mid-south toward the southeast U.S. early on the 26th. A strong cold front accompanied the upper system. A squall line of thunderstorms developed after midnight on the 25th across Mississippi and Alabama and reached the Georgia/Alabama border around 5 am EST. The line of thunderstorms intensified and bowed out just as it was moving in Georgia during the early morning hours. Wind gusts in excess 60 mph affected many counties as these thunderstorms rolled through the area during the early morning hours, causing extensive wind damage to trees, power lines, and some structures from the west and northwest side of Atlanta toward the Alabama border. In addition, two tornadoes, one an EF3, developed along the stronger part of the line as it moved through Carroll county before daybreak causing extensive damage along their paths.

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia and the Carrollton County Emergency Management Director confirmed that yet another tornado touched down in eastern Carroll county spawned by the same squall line of thunderstorms that just a few minutes earlier had resulted in an EF3 tornado in western Carroll county. This tornado was rated an EF1, touching down three miles east of Carrollton and tracking to a point five miles east of Carrollton. The path length was two miles long with a maximum path width of 100 yards. Maximum wind speeds with the tornado were estimated at 90 mph. A total of 24 structures sustained minor damage. The majority of the damage was in the form of roof and siding damage to homes. Numerous trees and power lines were also blown down along this tornado track as well. A man was injured when a tree limb went through his automobile and impaled his body.

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

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 10:41 UTC and running to 12:44 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:47 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), 48 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:08 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

7 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.