EF1 tornado, Lebanon to Woodstock, Georgia, May 20, 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

May 20, 2008

Touchdown

6:35 PM EDT (22:35 UTC)

Lifted

6:42 PM EDT (22:42 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.9 miles (9.4 km)

Path width

1,760 yards (1609 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

4

Property damage

$46 million

County

Cherokee County

Touchdown point

34.147, -84.517

Lift-off point

34.081, -84.452

Record number

0805201635-01

An active and very unstable northwest flow continued across the southeast United States as the polar vortex remained very strong in the northeast United States. A disturbance rotated around the back side of the upper low into the southeast United States during the afternoon and evening. Multiple complexes of severe thunderstorms developed across north and central Georgia during the mid to later afternoon as a result and moved southeast during the evening hours. Large hail was the primary severe weather element observed during this outbreak, however an EF2 tornado developed in Cherokee county and caused extensive damage to hundreds of homes. This was the 45th tornado of the spring season for north and central Georgia.

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia concluded that an EF1 tornado touched down near the intersection of Interstate-575 and Sixes Road and traveled on the ground approximately 5-6 miles ending near the intersection of Georgia Highway 92 and Wigley Road. The maximum path width of the tornado was approximately one mile wide with maximum winds estimated to be 95 mph. The Falton Lakes Mobile Home Park sustained significant damage with substantial damage to many site-built homes also observed in the East Cherokee Drive Area.||Overall damage consisted of 60 destroyed homes, 35 of which were site-built and 25 were mobile. Twenty-five additional mobile homes sustained minor damage. In addition to the 35 destroyed site-built homes, 391 additional homes sustained major damage and 588 sustained minor damage. Ten multi-family homes also received minor damage. Minor damage occurred to ten commercial buildings. Four school district buildings sustained major damage as well as 16 mobile school instructional units. Hundreds of trees were down in the area and many power lines were down as well. One indirect death to a 24-year old male and an indirect injury to a female occurred on May 29th when two very large trees fell on two vehicles. These trees were weakened from the tornado that occurred on May 20th.

The deaths

0 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:33 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:54 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:00 UTC and running to 00:34 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:40 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), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:34 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

5 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.