Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2011

EF0 tornado, Doerun to Ticknor, Georgia, March 9, 2011

From Doerun to Ticknor, this EF0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Colquitt County on March 9, 2011, touching down at 2:10 PM EST and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $4,000 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 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
March 9, 2011
Touchdown
2:10 PM EST (19:10 UTC)
Lifted
2:20 PM EST (19:20 UTC)
On the ground
10 minutes
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$4,000
County
Colquitt County
Touchdown point
31.325, -83.928
Lift-off point
31.331, -83.925
Record number
1103091310-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong upper level trough and associated surface cold front moved through area. Strong to severe storms accompanied it and produced some straight line wind damage across the area. A weak tornado also occurred.

A brief tornado touchdown occurred in northwest Colquitt county just north of Doerun near Georgia Highway 133. Three individuals observed the tornado touching down in a field and remaining on the ground for around one-half mile. The tornado knocked over a few trees and power lines and did minor damage to one barn before lifting. Maximum winds were estimated around 70 mph. The monetary damage figure provided is a rough estimate.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 14:39 UTC and running to 22:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
14:39 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WatchTAE
19:17 UTC19:45 UTCTornado WarningTAE

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 16:18 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.

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 12:00Z

7.2 hours before the tornado, 109 km from the path. March 9, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2011-03-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -71354, lifted condensation level 611 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2011-03-09The 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 348 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-71354 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
611 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
348 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
471 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 00:00Z

4.8 hours after it, 109 km from the path. March 10, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2011-03-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 10 joules per kilogram, CIN -47, lifted condensation level 610 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2011-03-10The 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 -370 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 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
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-47 J/kg
Surface CAPE
23 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
610 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-370 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-451 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
18:25 UTCTSTM WND DMG10 W StocksLee, GA2 ROOFS DAMAGED AT THE SAME BUILDING COMPLEX.
18:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGOaklandLee, GATREES DOWN ON OAKLAND ROAD.
18:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 N AlbanyDougherty, GABILLBOARD BLOWN ONTO CAR ON LIBERTY EXPRESSWAY.
18:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ne LeesburgLee, GATREES DOWN ALONG HIGHWAY 195.
18:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Sw AlbanyDougherty, GATREES DOWN ON ARISTEDES ROAD.
19:10 UTCTORNADODoerunColquitt, GAEMERGENCY MANAGER RELAYED REPORT FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT OF TORNADO ON GROUND NEAR WORTH-COLQUITT COUNTY LINE.
19:20 UTCTORNADO1 Ne DoerunColquitt, GATREES DOWN AND DEBRIS ON GROUND ON EVERGREEN ROAD.
19:20 UTCTORNADO2 Nnw DoerunWorth, GASEVERAL BOARDS BLOWN OFF A WOODEN FENCE.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 9, 2011

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 91:08 AM CSTEF1Hinds, MS6.0250$150,000
March 91:34 AM CSTEF2Hinds, MS2.2150$500,000
March 94:50 AM CSTEF1Saint Tammany Parish, LA11.0300$100,000
March 95:25 AM CSTEF1Pearl River, MS3.0100$20,000
March 95:45 AM CSTEF1Saint Tammany Parish, LA0.51001$100,000
March 96:08 AM CSTEF0Jefferson Parish, LA1.520$5,000
March 96:52 AM CSTEF2Saint Tammany Parish, LA1.9250$300,000
March 97:34 AM CSTEF1Harrison, MS1.030$20,000
March 97:47 AM CSTEF1Harrison, MS0.330$100,000
March 98:31 AM CSTEF1Mobile, AL0.280
March 98:37 AM CSTEF2Mobile, AL0.91004
March 99:17 AM CSTEF2Baldwin, AL2.0350
March 99:28 AM CSTEF0Escambia, FL0.580
March 910:02 AM CSTEF0Santa Rosa, FL0.150

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.