EF0 tornado, Vaughn to Birdie, Georgia, April 7, 2014

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

April 7, 2014

Touchdown

9:50 PM EDT (01:50 UTC)

Lifted

9:52 PM EDT (01:52 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.5 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

3

Property damage

$100,000

County

Spalding County

Touchdown point

33.303, -84.385

Lift-off point

33.309, -84.371

Record number

1404071950-01

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

• several trees down or uprooted behind homes along hwy 92

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

A lingering area of cold air damming was in place across northeast Georgia as a strong low over the Gulf lifted northeast, aided potent upper shortwave pushing through the Tennessee Valleys. Widespread rain with embedded thunderstorms developed during the day, producing 2 to 6 inches of rain over north and central Georgia. This rain resulted in isolated flash flooding and subsequent widespread areal and river flooding. Isolated severe thunderstorms developed as well, including a brief tornado.

A National Weather Service storm survey team determined that a short-lived EF-1 tornado touched down 8 miles northwest of Griffin. Around 200 trees were downed by the tornado and at least a dozen homes sustained minor roof damage. The most significant damage was a tree that fell onto a home along Highway 92. Several outbuildings sustained minor to moderate damage as well. Three people were injured when their cars were struck by or ran into downed trees along Highway 92 near Bicycle Road.|[04/07/14: Tornado #1, County #1-1, EF1, Spalding, 2014:003].

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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 Atlanta radar (KFFC), 19 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:51 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 2014 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.