EF0 tornado, Snow Spg to Mars Hill Crossroads, Georgia, January 21, 2012

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

January 21, 2012

Touchdown

4:15 PM EST (21:15 UTC)

Lifted

4:32 PM EST (21:32 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

10.4 miles (16.8 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Dooly County

Touchdown point

32.226, -83.796

Lift-off point

32.164, -83.633

Record number

1201211515-01

An area of low pressure over the Southern Plains moved quickly east and toward the Southern Appalachians during the day. Moisture and instability increased across the Southeast as a warm front lifted north of the region. Thunderstorms developed in the warm sector ahead of the approaching cold front, and many became severe. Three tornadoes touched down with this system, along with multiple reports of hail and wind damage. Flash flooding was also reported in the Atlanta Metropolitan area as a result of heavy rainfall.

A National Weather Service assessment team determined than an EF-0 tornado occurred in north Dooly County. The weak EF-0 tornado initially touched down around 415 PM with winds around 80 MPH along Old National Road northwest of Pinehurst where several trees were downed. The weak tornado lifted and briefly touched down again along Highway 41 near Taylor Road where several trees were uprooted. Near Rocky Ford Road, three outbuildings were damaged or destroyed. Sheets of tin were torn off a barn, the roof was blown off a hay shelter, and another hay shelter collapsed. The damage path was sporadic as the weak tornado would quickly lift after only brief touchdowns along the path. The final tree damage noted was along 3rd District Road just north of Highway 27 where several trees were downed.||[01/21/12: Tornado #3, County #1-1, EF0, Dooly, 2012:003].

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:53 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:42 UTC and running to 23:45 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 19:58 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.

The Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:16 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 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.