EF2 tornado, Wrens to Girard, 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

6:15 PM EDT (22:15 UTC)

Lifted

6:45 PM EDT (22:45 UTC)

On the ground

30 minutes

Path length

22.1 miles (35.5 km)

Path width

880 yards (805 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

Counties

Jefferson and Burke counties

Touchdown point

33.210, -82.392

Lift-off point

33.210, -82.000

Record number

0803151615-02

The pattern that began to evolve on March 14th continued and intensified on March 15th. A stationary front remained draped across north Georgia from near Atlanta to Athens. South of this front, the air mass was becoming increasingly warm, moist and unstable. Meanwhile, aloft, a low amplitude, yet vigorous short wave embedded within a fast zonal flow, was tracking rapidly eastward from the mid south into the southeast. Strong shear and high helicity combined with the unstable air mass and the frontal boundary to allow repeated severe thunderstorms to develop and track eastward along the boundary across north Georgia. The activity began early in the day as a complex of thunderstorms moved into the area from Alabama and continued until nearly midnight. As the day progressed, especially during the afternoon, the development of the activity gradually progressed further south and by midnight had reached the south and southeast parts of the state. Numerous severe thunderstorms and tornadic supercells were observed throughout the day.||Historical records indicate that this was one of the most significant severe weather days for the Peachtree City Weather Forecast Office with more events and warnings than had been observed since May 2003.

Three supercells tracked across portions of the GA CSRA and produce multiple long-lived tornadoes that produced significant damage.

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that an EF2 tornado touched down in northern Jefferson county. The tornado touched down approximately one mile northwest of Wrens and traveled east a little less than nine miles across northeastern Jefferson county and the town of Matthews, before crossing into Burke county just south of the town of Keysville. The tornado continued on the ground an additional eight to nine miles into Burke county before finally lifting near the Applewood County Club in Burke county. The total tornado path length was 19 miles. The maximum path width was one-quarter mile and maximum sustained winds were estimated at 120 mph. The most significant damage occurred in Matthews, where several mobile homes were destroyed. Two businesses in Wrens were destroyed and several others sustained damage. A church and an elementary school, and several homes in Wrens also suffered at least minor damage from wind and numerous downed trees. ficant roof damage. No serious injuries or fatalities were reported from this tornado.

A supercell spawned a tornado over Wrens in Jefferson county which moved across northern Burke county. It destroyed a church, a mobile home, and a large portion of a dairy farming business and damaged other homes and mobile homes. Numerous trees and powerlines were down.

Storm survey found numerous trees and powerlines down along path. One home suffered moderate damage from large hail and the tornado. Windows were broken from the hail and siding was severely damaged. Shingles and a small part of the roof were gone. Several mobile homes had minor to moderate damage.

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

16 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:59 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:37 UTC and running to 02:03 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.

Augusta/Bush Field (AGS), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 123 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:13 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.