EF1 tornado, Stuckey to Spring Hill, Georgia, December 17, 2012

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

December 17, 2012

Touchdown

1:49 PM EST (18:49 UTC)

Lifted

1:50 PM EST (18:50 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$5,000

County

Wheeler County

Touchdown point

32.071, -82.732

Lift-off point

32.070, -82.726

Record number

1212171249-01

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 100 mph.

• Tornado with 100 mph winds. Numerous trees snapped. 20 yards wide and .30 miles long.
• End of tornado. Small limbs broken.
• Start of tornado damage. .25 mile path length. 75 yard width to actual tornado but 300 yard total width when including RFD.

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

A mid-level high over the Gulf brought moist, southwest flow to the area. Meanwhile a strong shortwave moved off the Rockies and into the Central Plains on the 16th, pushing a front toward the Southeast on the 17th. Widespread showers and a few thunderstorms developed ahead of the front across especially central Georgia on the afternoon of the 17th. Three weak tornadoes developed on the leading edge of the thunderstorms, causing mainly tree damage in Wheeler and Telfair Counties.

A National Weather Service survey team found damage from an EF1 tornado with winds around 100 mph. Numerous trees had their tops sheared off along with hardwood trees snapped at their trunks.||[12/17/12: Tornado #1, County #1-1, EF1, Wheeler, 2012:007].

A National Weather Service survey team found a second short-lived tornado in Wheeler County. This tornado was also classified as an EF1 tornado with winds around 100 mph. It caused some minor shingle damage to one structure, and about 50 trees were downed or had their tops sheared off.||[12/17/12: Tornado #3, County #1-1, EF1, Wheeler, 2012:009].

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:49 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:32 UTC and running to 19:53 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 16:38 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.

Hazlehurst (AZE), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:47 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 2012 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.