Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2011
EF1 tornado, (Ays)Ware Co Arpt Wa, Georgia, November 16, 2011
This EF1 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Ware County on November 16, 2011, touching down at 8:40 PM EST and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $8,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF1
- Date
- November 16, 2011
- Touchdown
- 8:40 PM EST (01:40 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:41 PM EST (01:41 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.2 miles (0.4 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $8,000
- County
- Ware County
- Touchdown point
- 31.270, -82.440
- Lift-off point
- 31.273, -82.437
- Record number
- 1111161940-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A pre-frontal squall line moved across southeast Georgia around 8 pm local time. Widespread wind damage occurred from Coffee county to Ware county in isolated severe cells. An EF1 tornado produced damage about 5 miles SSE of Dixie Union in Ware County. The previous day, record high temperatures were set across north Florida due to strong warm air advection ahead of the front. A strong low level jet moved across the area overnight behind the storms.
EF1 tornado damage was observed at 5000 Hunt Trail. A roof was taken off of a gazebo and a porch and carports were damaged. At peak intensity of near 100 mph, the tornado lifted a shed 25 yards and moved a mobile home 1 foot off of its foundation. The cost of damage was estimated.
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.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:15 UTC and running to 05:41 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01:15 UTC | 05:41 UTC | Tornado Watch | JAX |
| 01:30 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAX |
| 03:58 UTC | 04:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAX |
| 06:00 UTC | 06:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAX |
| 06:31 UTC | 06:54 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAX |
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 00:42 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), 00:00Z
1.7 hours before the tornado, 111 km from the path. November 17, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 769 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -18 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 694 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 991 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 123 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 139 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.6
- Supercell composite
- 2.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.5 K/km
Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 12:00Z
10.3 hours after it, 111 km from the path. November 17, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 206 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -52 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 84 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 658 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 57 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 54 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 5 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Nnw Homerville | Clinch, GA | THE 911 CENTER REPORTED A TREE BLOWN DOWN ON A POWERLINE JUST OFF OF 441 NORTH NEAR HOMERVILLE. THE TIME GIVEN WAS BASED ON RADAR. |
| 01:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 S Dixie Union | Ware, GA | STORM SURVEY CONFIRMED THUNDERSTORM WINDS BLEW DOWN A BARN WITH SHEET METAL RIPPED OFF ROOF AT 3661 LUVETT ROAD. STRAIGHT LINE WINDS ESTIMATED AT 70 MPH AND DAMAGE WAS LESS THAN A QUARTER OF A MILE. TIME OF EVENT WAS BAS |
| 01:39 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 S Dixie Union | Ware, GA | THE 911 CALL CENTER REPORTED TREES DOWN ALONG LOVETT ROAD IN WARESBORO. TIME IS ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 01:40 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 5 Sse Dixie Union | Ware, GA | NWS STORM SURVEY CONFIRMS EF1 TORNADO AT 5000 HUNT TRAIL. ROOF WAS TAKEN OFF A GAZEBO AND PORCH AND CARPORTS WERE DAMAGED. AT PEAK INTENSITY NEAR 100 MPH THE TORNADO LIFTED A SHED 25 YARDS AND MOVED A MOBILE HOME 1 FOOT |
| 01:40 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Sse Dixie Union | Ware, GA | NWS STORM SURVEY CONFIRMS EF1 TORNADO AT 5000 HUNT TRAIL. ROOF WAS TAKEN OFF A GAZEBO AND PORCH AND CARPORTS WERE DAMAGED. AT PEAK INTENSITY NEAR 100 MPH THE TORNADO LIFTED A SHED 25 YARDS AND MOVED A MOBILE HOME 1 FOOT |
| 01:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Sse Dixie Union | Ware, GA | THE 911 CALL CENTER REPORTED DAMAGE TO ROOFS IN THE PALMETTO SUBDIVISION NEAR CAMERON LANE AND US-1. TIME IS ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 01:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Nw Waycross | Ware, GA | THE 911 CALL CENTER REPORTED TREES DOWN ALONG US-1 NEAR WAYCROSS. TIME IS ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 01:55 UTC | TSTM WND GST 41 | 4 Nw Waycross | Ware, GA | WAYCROSS AWOS REPORTED A WIND GUST OF 41 MPH. |
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 November 16, 2011
20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 16 | 2:40 AM CST | EF1 | Saint Helena Parish, LA | 0.5 | 150 | $50,000 | ||
| November 16 | 3:35 AM CST | EF0 | Terrebonne Parish, LA | 0.1 | 25 | $30,000 | ||
| November 16 | 4:11 AM CST | EF1 | Marion, MS | 9.6 | 440 | $300,000 | ||
| November 16 | 5:03 AM CST | EF1 | Jones, MS | 2.2 | 50 | $60,000 | ||
| November 16 | 5:12 AM CST | EF2 | Jones, MS | 12.9 | 300 | 15 | $650,000 | |
| November 16 | 7:07 AM CST | EF2 | Sumter, AL | 1.5 | 600 | 1 | $200,000 | |
| November 16 | 7:32 AM CST | EF0 | Marengo, AL | 2.8 | 250 | $300,000 | ||
| November 16 | 9:00 AM CST | EF0 | Clarke, AL | 0.3 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| November 16 | 11:08 AM CST | EF1 | Montgomery, AL | 0.9 | 75 | $500,000 | ||
| November 16 | 11:52 AM CST | EF2 | Macon, AL to GA | 61.5 | 880 | 4 | $9.5 million | |
| November 16 | 4:25 PM EST | EF0 | Cleveland, NC | 0.3 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| November 16 | 4:53 PM EST | EF0 | Richmond, GA | 1.1 | 40 | $10,000 | ||
| November 16 | 5:06 PM EST | EF0 | Union, SC | 0.1 | 50 | $1.0 million | ||
| November 16 | 5:30 PM EST | EF1 | Chester, SC | 1.4 | 100 | $20,000 | ||
| November 16 | 5:32 PM EST | EF2 | York, SC | 5.8 | 200 | 3 | 5 | $1.0 million |
| November 16 | 5:34 PM EST | EF1 | Burke, GA | 6.5 | 100 | $200,000 | ||
| November 16 | 5:53 PM EST | EF0 | Aiken, SC | 7.4 | 70 | $20,000 | ||
| November 16 | 6:05 PM EST | EF2 | Davidson, NC | 12.5 | 200 | 2 | 15 | $21 million |
| November 16 | 6:55 PM EST | EF1 | Pittsylvania, VA | 2.6 | 125 | $500,000 | ||
| November 16 | 11:14 PM EST | EF0 | Hertford, NC | 1.7 | 50 | $10,000 |
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.