EF2 tornado, Rocky Mt to Concord, Georgia, March 18, 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

March 18, 2013

Touchdown

6:10 PM EDT (22:10 UTC)

Lifted

6:30 PM EDT (22:30 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

13.3 miles (21.5 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$285,000

Counties

Meriwether and Pike counties

Touchdown point

33.144, -84.677

Lift-off point

33.090, -84.455

Record number

1303181610-01

19 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

• 12-20 trees snapped or uprooted.
• Shed destroyed. Debris thrown northeast 150 yards.
• Pecan orchard destroyed, nearly all trees uprooted. One fell on old home used for storage and destroyed it.
• Part of roof removed due to force of wind. Chimneys broken off.

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

A strong upper level system combined with a moist south to southeast flow, moderate instability, a cold pool aloft, and enhanced surface convergence along and ahead of an approaching cold front moving through the Deep South. This combination of parameters resulted in widespread severe weather across northwest, west central, and central Georgia including damaging winds, large hail, and a tornado. A wedge of cold air was in place across northeast Georgia, which acted to stabilize this area with only isolated reports of severe weather. The bulk of the severe weather was concentrated along a zone just to the south and west of the wedge front, where instability and low-level shear were maximized.

A National Weather Service storm survey determined that an EF2 tornado with wind speeds up to 120 MPH touched down near Rocky Mount Road and Caldwell Road in Meriwether County. IT traveled east to southeast before lifting one mile west of Concord in Pike County. Total path length was 13.35 miles and up to 300 yards wide. In Meriwether County, thousands of trees were either blown over or snapped, with some falling on homes.|[03/18/13: Tornado #1, County #1-2, EF2, Meriwether-Pike, 2013:004].

A National Weather Service survey team determined that an EF-2 tornado that touched down in Meriwether County continued into Pike County. A home sustained minor roof damage, had both doors blown out, and four front windows were damaged. One barn was completely destroyed, and another shifted several feet off its foundation. A pontoon boat was thrown into a third barn. Two neighboring houses sustained minor damage, one to the roof and another to the garage. Thousands of trees were snapped or uprooted, some falling on homes.|[03/18/13: Tornado #1, County #2-2, EF2, Meriwether-Pike, 2013:004].

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:08 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:16 UTC and running to 23:20 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:31 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 Atlanta radar (KFFC), 27 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:08 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

9 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.