Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2013
EF0 tornado, Reece, Georgia, April 19, 2013
This EF0 tornado ran 3.4 miles across Morgan County on April 19, 2013, touching down at 1:21 PM EDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $3,000 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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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
- EF0
- Date
- April 19, 2013
- Touchdown
- 1:21 PM EDT (17:21 UTC)
- Lifted
- 1:22 PM EDT (17:22 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 3.4 miles (5.5 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $3,000
- County
- Morgan County
- Touchdown point
- 33.529, -83.682
- Lift-off point
- 33.541, -83.625
- Record number
- 1304191121-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A cold front pushed through the Southeast on the 19th. Instability increased ahead of the front across central Georgia during the afternoon hours, and several thunderstorms were able to become severe, with mostly damaging winds reported. A tornado occurred as well in Newton and Morgan Counties.
The tornado that touched down in Newton County crossed into Morgan County briefly. The track ended near the intersection of Durden Road and Reese Road where a few trees were snapped and uprooted.|[04/19/13: Tornado #1, County #2-2, EF2, Newton-Morgan, 2013:008].
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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 16:38 UTC and running to 18:16 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:38 UTC | 18:16 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | FFC |
| 17:10 UTC | 17:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC |
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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:20 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.
Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 12:00Z
5.4 hours before the tornado, 81 km from the path. April 19, 2013.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 292 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -15 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 280 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 572 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 44 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 45 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 252 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 286 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 2.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.7 K/km
Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 00:00Z
6.6 hours after it, 81 km from the path. April 20, 2013.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -91140 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 18 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 981 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 86 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -290 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -124 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 2.2 K/km
The radar
The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:20 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Mansfield | Newton, GA | SEVERAL REPORTS OF DAMAGE...HOMES MOVED OFF THEIR FOUNDATION...POWER POLES DOWN. |
| 17:11 UTC | TORNADO | Mansfield | Newton, GA | APPEARANT TORNADO HIT MANSFIELD...ALSO OBSERVED CLEARLY ON ATLANTA TDWR RADAR. SOME HOMES DAMAGED AND MOVED OFF THEIR FOUNDATION...POWER POLES DOWN. MANY TREES DOWNED. PAVILION AT BEAVER PARK DESTROYED. FINAL RATING AND |
| 17:12 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Sw Mansfield | Newton, GA | *** 1 INJ *** AN EF2 TORNADO FORMED WITHIN A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS AS IT MOVED THROUGH NEWTON COUNTY. DAMAGE BEGAN ALONG DUKES ROAD WHERE TREES WERE SNAPPED AND UPROOTED. AS THE TORNADO MOVED INTO THE TOWN OF MANSFIELD I |
| 17:22 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ene Newborn | Morgan, GA | THIS TORNADO IS THE SAME TORNADO THAT MOVED FROM NEWTON COUNTY. THE TORNADO WEAKENED AS IT MOVED INTO MORGAN COUNTY. PRIMARILY TREE DAMAGE OCCURRED WHERE SEVERAL TREES WERE DOWNED. THE TORNADO DISSIPATED NEAR THE INTERSE |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 19, 2013
6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 19 | 2:03 AM CDT | EF1 | Lincoln, TN | 3.1 | 400 | |||
| April 19 | 2:09 AM CDT | EF1 | Moore, TN | 4.2 | 400 | |||
| April 19 | 1:12 PM EDT | EF2 | Newton, GA | 7.6 | 175 | 1 | $500,000 | |
| April 19 | 6:36 PM EDT | EF1 | Spotsylvania, VA | 0.8 | 150 | $40,000 | ||
| April 19 | 7:26 PM EDT | EF0 | Prince George's, MD | 0.5 | 75 | $25,000 | ||
| April 19 | 7:53 PM EDT | EF0 | Chenango, NY | 3.2 | 200 | $100,000 |
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.