EF0 tornado, Woolsey Rust Arpt to Lees Mill, Georgia, December 22, 2011

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

December 22, 2011

Touchdown

6:18 PM EST (23:18 UTC)

Lifted

6:21 PM EST (23:21 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.9 miles (4.7 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Fayette County

Touchdown point

33.511, -84.541

Lift-off point

33.520, -84.492

Record number

1112221718-01

6 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 95 mph.

• 50 Yards wide by 100 yards long. 25 trees snapped or uprooted.
• 10 trees snapped or uprooted.
• 2 Garage/Sheds destroyed with partial roof damage on two houses. 2 large oaks were uprooted and 8 other trees snapped.
• Minor roof damage and trees down. Up to 50 along entire path.

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

A deep trough, quite characteristic of the early winter season of 2011-2012, was anchored across the southwest U.S. with broad southwest flow aloft evident from the southwest U.S. toward the mid-Atlantic. A summer-like Bermuda high pressure area was anchored off the southeast U.S. coast. A stationary front extended across the lower Mississippi valley toward the mid-Atlantic with a cold front approaching from the west of this region from Texas toward the Great lakes. The air mass across the region in advance of the stationary front was extremely moist, warm, and unstable for mid-December. As an embedded strong short wave traversed the region in the southwest flow aloft, a period of strong shear and marginal instability translated across the region during the late afternoon and early evening. These synoptic features supported a strong to severe quasi-linear convective system, or squall line, which moved across the state from west to east during the late afternoon and evening. The line of thunderstorms spawned a half-a-dozen tornadoes causing extensive damage across several counties from west central into northwest and north central Georgia. As the line moved east past Atlanta, it weakened considerably and no further severe weather was observed across east Georgia. The six tornadoes occurring on this date tied the record for the most tornadoes ever occurring during December within the Peachtree City, Georgia county warning area in December, namely six in 2005.

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that a brief and weak EF1 tornado touched down in far southeast Fayette county along the northeast shore of Lake Horton. The tornado first touched down near the end of Woolsey Creek Trail just west of Georgia Highway 92. The tornado then moved northeast a total of 1.6 miles, lifting just north of the end of Mudbridge Road and just shy of the Clayton county line. Intermittent tree damage was observed along the path of the tornado with a total of 35 trees snapped or downed. Two homes sustained minor roof damage and two outbuildings, including a large barn, were destroyed.||[12/22/11: Tornado #5, County #1-1, EF1, Fayette, 2011:031].

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City confirmed that a brief EF0 tornado affected far north Fayette county. The tornado touched down near Lees Mill Road just west of Georgia Highway 92 and traveled northeast about one mile before lifting just northeast of the end of Hill Road. Approximately 50 trees and six power poles were downed or snapped along the path of the tornado, especially along Hill Road. One home on Hill Road lost several shingles, a few gutters, and a portion of the flashing on its roof. A wooden fence was also destroyed at the same property from downed trees. WSR-88D also indicated that the circulation that spawned this tornado was likely associated with the same circulation that earlier spawned an EF1 tornado in Coweta county.||[12/22/11: Tornado #6, County #1-1, EF0, Fayette, 2011:032].

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

34 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:44 UTC, 34 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:25 UTC and running to 00:02 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 19:51 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.

Atlanta International Airport (ATL), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 18 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:16 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 2011 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.