EF3 tornado, Little Creek to Brock, Georgia, March 2, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

March 2, 2012

Touchdown

8:09 PM EST (01:09 UTC)

Lifted

8:50 PM EST (01:50 UTC)

On the ground

41 minutes

Path length

29.0 miles (46.7 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$12 million

Counties

Haralson and Paulding counties

Touchdown point

33.868, -85.296

Lift-off point

33.931, -84.796

Record number

1203021909-01

33 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 165 mph.

• Minor roof damage to homes.
• Large section of roof lifted from Elementary School.
• Mainly tree damage, roof damage confined to shingles.
• 2 Hardwoods Uprooted. Numerous Pine Trees Snapped and broken. Metal Roof blow off home

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

The cold front that stalled across central Georgia on March 1st began advancing back north as a warm front the morning of March 2nd. A secondary, and stronger, cold front moved across the Tennessee Valley late on Friday, advancing into Georgia Friday evening and into central Georgia early Saturday morning. Very warm and moist air ahead of the cold front provided for sufficient instability to produce widespread strong to severe thunderstorms across the region. One supercell produced two tornadoes in north Georgia - an EF3 in Haralson and Paulding Counties and an EF1 in Cobb County. Large hail, damaging winds, and flash flooding also occurred with these storms.

An EF-1 tornado touched down at approximately 8:09 PM in Haralson County near Cross Roads Church Road and Tallapoosa Highway, uprooting and snapping trees for several miles. The tornado strengthened to an EF-3 along Bethlehem Church Road where a house collapsed and a repair shop was destroyed. One person was injured when the house collapsed into the basement, where he was taking shelter. At that residence, two dogs were killed. A cow died in a nearby field. The tornado continued across Haralson County, crossing Highway 27 where dozens of trees where snapped and uprooted. As the tornado continued east, minor damage was sustained to a church where a steeple was blown off. Hundreds of trees were down in forested areas in the eastern portions of Haralson County. The tornado continued into Paulding County where it lifted near McClure Trail and McClure Drive around 8:50 PM.||[03/02/12: Tornado #1, County #1-2, EF3, Haralson, 2012:005].

The Haralson County tornado entered northwest Paulding County near Yorkville around 8:28 PM. Numerous roads were closed due to debris. Three miles south of Yorkville there was an overturned RV, and a box truck was impaled by a 2-by-4. A residential neighborhood was hit, damaging several homes and destroying one. The most significant damage occurred at the new Paulding County Regional Airport, where maximum wind speeds were estimated at near 135 MPH. A hangar was destroyed and 19 of 23 planes were totaled, including a Citation jet. Damage was sustained to the terminal and other airport property, such as fences and lamp posts, as well. East of the airport, a church lost its roof. Poole Elementary School had a partial roof failure and at least one wall blown out. The portion of the roof that blew off was found across the campus. Six modular classrooms were destroyed as well. Additional homes were damaged as the tornado continued east, finally lifting near McClure Trail and McClure Drive around 8:50 PM. The Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported that in Paulding County, 92 homes sustained minor damage, 58 sustained moderate damage, and 10 were destroyed. The total path length for both counties was 29 miles.||[03/02/12: Tornado #1, County #2-2, EF2, Paulding, 2012:005].

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

36 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:33 UTC, 36 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:45 UTC and running to 03:57 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:30 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.

Dallas (PUJ), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:09 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

69 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 70 of them

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.