EF0 tornado, Forrester, Georgia, January 30, 2013

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 30, 2013

Touchdown

6:12 PM EST (23:12 UTC)

Lifted

6:14 PM EST (23:14 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1,000

County

Lee County

Touchdown point

31.640, -84.161

Lift-off point

31.649, -84.137

Record number

1301301712-01

A strong system affected the area at the end of January with unusually strong wind fields. The 500 mb winds were as high as 110 knots with the upper level trough, and 850 mb winds reached around 70 knots in the local area. These very strong low level winds combined with SBCAPE values of 300-500 j/kg produced widespread straight line wind damage across the area with numerous trees and power lines blown down as a squall line moved through the area. Strong non-convective related winds also occurred ahead of the main line of convection and resulted in a few trees being blown down.

The public reported a cone shaped funnel cloud near the junction of Forrester Pkwy and Highway 19. The funnel cloud likely briefly touched down as a weak EF0 tornado with winds between 70-80 mph across Lover's Lane Road extending near Pine Ridge and Southill Dr. Trees were blown down along the funnel's track and a roaring sound was heard at a residence. This also was consistent with an area of rotation on radar. Monetary damage was estimated.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:06 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:52 UTC and running to 23:53 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 20:00 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.

Albany Municipal (ABY), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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.