Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2009

EF0 tornado, Pyles Marsh, Georgia, June 4, 2009

This EF0 tornado ran 2.1 miles across Glynn County on June 4, 2009, touching down at 4:03 PM EDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
EF0
Date
June 4, 2009
Touchdown
4:03 PM EDT (20:03 UTC)
Lifted
4:06 PM EDT (20:06 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
2.1 miles (3.4 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Glynn County
Touchdown point
31.115, -81.603
Lift-off point
31.142, -81.584
Record number
0906041403-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A lingering surface low pressure center was over south-central Georgia and surface high pressure was positioned well south of the area. A mid level disturbance traversed the area and this feature provided additional lift during the afternoon. These ingredients combined to yield a severe storm that produced a weak tornado in Glynn county in the afternoon.

A tornado developed over the Little Satilla River and tracked quickly northeast impacting the Royal Oaks Subdivision. Damage occurred to a Sunoco Gas Station near the intersection of Interstate 95 and U.S. Highway 17 which included a collapsed wall and damaged windows. Numerous trees were blown down with minor damaged noted to some residences.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:48 UTC21:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryJAX
20:20 UTC21:00 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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:07 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

8.1 hours before the tornado, 71 km from the path. June 4, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2009-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 607 joules per kilogram, CIN -31, lifted condensation level 759 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 2009-06-04The 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 46 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 knots.1939Sfc1 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
607 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-31 J/kg
Surface CAPE
784 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
759 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
46 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z

3.9 hours after it, 71 km from the path. June 5, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2009-06-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 295 joules per kilogram, CIN -60, lifted condensation level 806 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 2009-06-05The 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 67 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.193958Sfc1 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
295 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-60 J/kg
Surface CAPE
476 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
806 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 72 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:01 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
20:06 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 Sw Dock JunctionGlynn, GATHUNDERSTORM DAMAGE WITH A POSSIBLE TORNADO AT SUNOCO GAS STATION NEAR INTERSTATE 95 AND HIGHWAY 17 JUNCTION. WINDOWS WERE BLOWN OUT OF THE GAS STATION AND REAR WALL COLLAPSED. NUMEROUS TREES DOWN IN THE AREA ALONG WITH
20:06 UTCTORNADO6 W BrunswickGlynn, GAAN NWS STORM SURVEY DETERMINED THERE TO BE A BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN LESS THAN A QUARTER OF A MILE EAST OF THE INTERSTATE 95 AND HIGHWAY 17 JUNCTION...ALSO KNOWN AS OCEAN HIGHWAY. THE TORNADO BEGAN OVER THE LITTLE SATILL

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 4, 2009

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 411:10 AM EDTEF0Leon, FL0.125$1.3 million
June 44:17 PM CDTEF0Hartley, TX0.5100
June 43:35 PM PDTEF0Linn, OR1.5150$10,000
June 46:08 PM CDTEF0Oldham, TX1.0100
June 46:33 PM CDTEF0Randall, TX0.1100
June 46:40 PM CDTEF0Randall, TX0.8100
June 48:50 PM EDTEF0Worth, GA0.250$35,000

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.