EF0 tornado, Vada, Georgia, March 3, 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

March 3, 2012

Touchdown

8:30 AM EST (13:30 UTC)

Lifted

8:35 AM EST (13:35 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

3.3 miles (5.3 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$35,000

County

Decatur County

Touchdown point

31.050, -84.430

Lift-off point

31.070, -84.380

Record number

1203030730-01

15 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 88 mph.

• Garage debris blown into trees.
• A couple small pine treese snapped in convergent pattern.
• Roof debris lofted into trees.
• Debris lofted approx. 40 feet up in trees.

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

Several subtle upper level shortwaves affected the area during a three day period between March 1-3 as a broad long-wave upper level trough located west of the area slowly progressed eastward. Subtle surface boundaries were also in the area with a relatively warm, moist and unstable airmass in place. Instability values approached 2000 j/kg with low level shear around 30 knots and deep layer shear around 50 knots. Several tornadoes occurred in the National Weather Service Tallahassee forecast area with numerous instances of straight line wind damage, heavy rain, and localized flooding as well.

An NWS Storm Survey confirmed that an EF0 tornado touched down near Vada Road and moved northeastward with intermittent damage before lifting about 5 minutes later. An attached garage of a home was destroyed along with a farm equipment shed. A car was also flipped. Maximum winds were estimated around 80 mph. Monetary damage was estimated.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:29 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:47 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 12:44 UTC and running to 19:00 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 13:00 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 Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:30 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

5 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.