Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2008

EF1 tornado, Mt Pleasant, Georgia, March 7, 2008

This EF1 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Wayne County on March 7, 2008, touching down at 10:20 AM EST and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1,000 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
March 7, 2008
Touchdown
10:20 AM EST (15:20 UTC)
Lifted
10:25 AM EST (15:25 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$1,000
Crop damage
$10,000
County
Wayne County
Touchdown point
31.407, -81.692
Lift-off point
31.406, -81.682
Record number
0803070920-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A squall line with severe weather and several tornadoes moved across north Florida and southeast Georgia.

Wayne County Emergency Management reported a 200 yard wide and one half mile long tornado track crossing Post Road and Boones Branch Road south of Mount Pleasant. Hundreds of trees were snapped by the event with the Road Department sent to clear the roadways. Several garages were damaged with the tornado path transiting between several homes.

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

The warnings

6 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:14 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 16:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
06:00 UTC19:45 UTCFlood WatchJAX
14:32 UTC15:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAX
15:14 UTC16:00 UTCTornado WarningJAX
15:27 UTC15:46 UTCTornado WarningJAX
15:39 UTC16:17 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAX

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 forecast that day

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 12:55 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 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.

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 12:00Z

3.3 hours before the tornado, 101 km from the path. March 7, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2008-03-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 128 joules per kilogram, CIN -83, lifted condensation level 599 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
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.
HodographHodograph, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2008-03-07The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 357 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
128 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-83 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
599 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
357 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
436 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z

8.7 hours after it, 101 km from the path. March 8, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2008-03-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 7 joules per kilogram, CIN -134, lifted condensation level 784 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
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.
HodographHodograph, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2008-03-08The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -176 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
7 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-134 J/kg
Surface CAPE
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
784 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-176 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-14 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 103 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:19 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
14:20 UTCTORNADO2 Ssw Mount PleasantWayne, GAEMERGENCY MANAGEMENT RPORTED A ONE HALF MILE LONG AND 200 YARD WIDE DAMAGE PATH THROUGH A WOODED AREA NEAR POST ROAD AND BOONES BRANCH ROAD. SIGNIFICANT TREE BLOWDOWN OCCURED AND THE ROAD DEPARTMENT WAS DISPACHED TO CLEA
14:27 UTCTORNADO9 W WaynesvilleBrantley, GA5 PUBLIC REPORTS OF A TORNADO RECEIVED BY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT 9 MILES WEST OF WAYNESVILLE AT TURKEY RIDGE. DAMAGE TO AT LEAST ONE HOME.
14:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 S Dock JunctionGlynn, GAUTILITY COMPANY REPORTS SEVERAL TREES DOWN ON POWERLINES WEST OF INTERSTATE 95. TIMES WERE ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
15:27 UTCTORNADO9 W WaynesvilleBrantley, GA5 PUBLIC REPORTS OF A TORNADO RECEIVED BY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT 9 MILES WEST OF WAYNESVILLE AT TURKEY RIDGE. DAMAGE TO AT LEAST ONE HOME.
15:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 S Dock JunctionGlynn, GAUTILITY COMPANY REPORTS SEVERAL TREES DOWN ON POWERLINES WEST OF INTERSTATE 95. TIMES WERE ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
15:57 UTCTORNADO4 Sse South NewportMcintosh, GADEPUTIES SPOTTTED 2 BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWNS. OFFICIALS ARE LOOKING FOR DAMAGE.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 7, 2008

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 77:25 AM ESTEF1Leon, FL4.61501$750,000
March 78:36 AM ESTEF2Taylor, FL0.42002$500,000
March 79:30 AM ESTEF0Suwannee, FL0.050
March 79:45 AM ESTEF2Columbia, FL1.580015$4.0 million
March 710:10 AM ESTEF0Baker, FL1.21001
March 710:20 AM ESTEF1Charlton, GA5.5100
March 710:27 AM ESTEF0Brantley, GA0.050
March 710:30 AM ESTEF0Nassau, FL0.0100
March 710:57 AM ESTEF0McIntosh, GA0.025
March 711:30 AM ESTEF0Camden, GA0.6100
March 77:25 PM ESTEF1Douglas, GA7.01001$2.0 million

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.