EF2 tornado, Elberton, Georgia, March 15, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

March 15, 2008

Touchdown

4:19 PM EDT (20:19 UTC)

Lifted

4:30 PM EDT (20:30 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

8.0 miles (12.9 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Elbert County

Touchdown point

34.007, -82.734

Lift-off point

34.029, -82.604

Record number

0803151419-01

Several supercell thunderstorms affected the mountains and foothills of extreme northeast Georgia during the afternoon and early evening hours. Very large hail, damaging winds and a few tornadoes accompanied the storms.

NWS survey found a tornado damage track in far southern and southeast Elbert County. The tornado, which was spawned from a supercell, touched down southeast of Fortsonia near the intersection of River Rd and Flatwoods Rd. As the tornado tracked east along River Rd, damage was mainly confined to trees and power lines. The tornado began to take on a more east/southeast track near the intersection of River Rd and Balchin Rd, remaining just north of the Wilkes County line. Intensification occurred just west of highway 79 near its intersection with Cooter Creek Rd. The tornado continued to track east southeast, snapping or uprooting numerous trees between Cooter Creek Rd and the Broad River. Two homes received heavy roof damage consistent with EF2 intensity on Bramblett Circle along the Broad River. A boat dock was also lifted and tossed 25 feet in this area. The tornado continued to blow down trees before finally lifting in Bobby Brown State Park in the extreme southeast corner of the county.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS GSP issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:54 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:31 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:04 UTC and running to 20:41 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:41 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 Greer radar (KGSP), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:20 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

46 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.