EF3 tornado, Adairsville to Petersburg, Georgia, January 30, 2013

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

January 30, 2013

Touchdown

11:12 AM EST (16:12 UTC)

Lifted

11:43 AM EST (16:43 UTC)

On the ground

31 minutes

Path length

21.8 miles (35.0 km)

Path width

900 yards (823 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

17

Property damage

$75 million

Counties

Bartow and Gordon counties

Touchdown point

34.341, -84.953

Lift-off point

34.598, -84.731

Record number

1301301012-01

14 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 158 mph.

• total collapse of the walls and structure.
• Dozens of trees uprooted, and some snapped at their tops. Some damage to mobile homes but mostly from trees. One tree fell on a home, killing the man inside.
• Several trees were uprooted or had large limbs snapped off.
• Several trees were uprooted.

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

A very large storm system approached the state on the 30th. A highly amplified upper trough over the plains pushed east during the day, dragging a strong cold front through the Southeast. A squall line associated with the cold front pushed into northwest and west central Georgia during the mid-morning hours, and pushed through the rest of the state through the afternoon and evening. Widespread wind damage occurred with this line as it moved through. Additionally, a supercell thunderstorm ahead of the line spawned two tornadoes; a rare January EF-3 across Bartow and Gordon Counties and an EF-1 across Gilmer and Fannin Counties.

A tornado touched down just southwest of Adairsville at approximately 1112 AM EST. The tornado strengthened to high-end EF-3 in Adairsville where dozens of homes were damaged or destroyed. At least 95 structures were damaged, with 31 destroyed, 17 sustaining major damage, and 47 with minor damage. Most of the damage to homes was a result of trees falling on homes in downtown Adairsville. The worst damage was along Highway 140 where a large portion of a manufacturing plant was destroyed. One fatality occurred when a tree fell on a mobile home. Over 100 cars were overturned near exit 306 on Interstate 75.|[01/30/13: Tornado #1, County #1-2, EF3, Bartow-Gordon, 2013:001].

The tornado that first touched down in Bartow County continued into Gordon County. Numerous trees and power lines were downed from Redbud to Highway 53 and seven poultry homes were destroyed. In all, 268 homes were impacted: 30 were completely destroyed, 110 had major damage, and another 70 had minor damage. Of these, 202 were single family homes and 66 were mobile homes. Eight injuries were also reported which all occurred in one home. Some of the EF-3 damage in Gordon County occurred literally only blocks away from EF-3 damage that occurred on December 22, 2011.|[01/30/13: Tornado #1, County #2-2, EF3, Bartow-Gordon, 2013:001].

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:59 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 16:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:12 UTC and running to 18:20 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 12:43 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.

Dalton Municipal Airport (DNN), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 125 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:11 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 2013 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

44 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.