EF1 tornado, Rehobeth, Georgia, April 8, 2010

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

April 8, 2010

Touchdown

4:50 PM EDT (20:50 UTC)

Lifted

4:51 PM EDT (20:51 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$218,000

County

Morgan County

Touchdown point

33.771, -83.503

Lift-off point

33.784, -83.474

Record number

1004081450-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 93 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A strong cold front and increasingly negatively tilted upper trough was sweeping through the southeastern U.S. Strong shear accompanied this upper-level system, but instability was marginal at best. Several narrow lines of showers and thunderstorms accompanied the upper-level trough as it moved through Georgia during the day. The strongest line of thunderstorms developed in the mid-afternoon across west central Georgia and moved quickly into east central Georgia by late afternoon. A small cell along this line of thunderstorms in northern Morgan county of east central Georgia produced a brief EF1 tornado. This was the only event reported with this weather system.

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that a brief EF1 tornado had touched down in northeast Morgan county, approximately two miles north-northeast of Bostwick. The tornado first touched down on High Shoals Road, just south of the intersection with Rehoboth Road, then continued on an east-northeastward path across Rehoboth Road, Price Mill Road, and River Walk Road before lifting near the Appalachee River. At the tornado touchdown point on High Shoals Road, the roof was blown off a chicken house. As the tornado crossed Rehoboth Road, the roof of a home sustained significant damage and an adjacent barn was destroyed. As the tornado continued across Price Mill Road, one home sustained major damage and was left uninhabitable. Many trees were also either blown down or uprooted in the area. As the tornado reached its final point along River Walk Road, a high voltage power line was destroyed and two additional homes sustained minor damage. In total, five homes, one chicken house, and five out buildings were damaged.

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

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

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:31 UTC and running to 22:37 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:54 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.

Athens Municipal (AHN), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 110 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:50 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 2010 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.