Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2014
EF1 tornado, Bristol, Georgia, December 24, 2014
This EF1 tornado ran 5.7 miles across Pierce County on December 24, 2014, touching down at 12:50 PM EST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- December 24, 2014
- Touchdown
- 12:50 PM EST (17:50 UTC)
- Lifted
- 12:54 PM EST (17:54 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 5.7 miles (9.2 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Pierce County
- Touchdown point
- 31.406, -82.251
- Lift-off point
- 31.466, -82.185
- Record number
- 1412241150-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A pre-frontal squall line of severe storms raced east across the forecast area. Strong shear profiles favored rotating storms. Widespread wind damage occurred, with one confirmed tornado touchdown in Pierce county.
A low-end EF1 tornado damaged 7 homes, downed power lines, and snapped trees. The tornado touched down about 8 miles north of Blackshear along Walkerville Road around 12:50 pm. Low end EF1 damage was noted along the tornado path as it crossed Georgia State Road 121/15. Including damage to 7 homes, power lines and large trees snapped. EF0 damage was noted after the tornado crossed Georgia State Road 121/15, with the tornado lifting after an approximate 5.7 mile path near Spotted Farm Road and Songbird Place, or about 14 miles north of Blackshear. The tornado width varied from 60-100 yards.
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 tornado watch, issued at 11:34 UTC and running to 18:57 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:34 UTC | 18:57 UTC | Tornado Watch | JAX |
| 17:31 UTC | 18:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAX |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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.
Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 12:00Z
5.8 hours before the tornado, 115 km from the path. December 24, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 10 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -160 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 17 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1009 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 65 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 42 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 405 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 396 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.6 K/km
Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z
6.2 hours after it, 115 km from the path. December 25, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -79177 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 926 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 67 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -30 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 68 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
The radar
The Moody AFB radar (KVAX), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:47 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:34 UTC | TSTM WND GST 65 | Axson | Atkinson, GA | TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTS LARGE TREES AND BRANCHES DOWN IN THE TOWN OF AXSON...WITH WIND GUSTS ESTIMATED AT 65 MPH. |
| 17:49 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ne Waycross | Ware, GA | TREE DOWN ON WISTER STREET IN WAYCROSS. |
| 17:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Bristol | Pierce, GA | GEMA REPORTED NUMEROUS TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN IN BRISTOL. TIME OF REPORT WAS BASED ON RADAR. |
| 17:50 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 4 Sw Bristol | Pierce, GA | NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY CONDUCTED BY THE METEOROLOGIST IN CHARGE DETERMINED THAT A LOW-END EF-1 TORNADO DAMAGED 7 HOMES...TOPPLED POWERLINES...AND SNAPPED TREES. APPROXIMATE LENTH OF THE TORNADO WAS 5.75 MI |
| 17:55 UTC | TORNADO | 8 N Patterson | Appling, GA | MULTIPLE HOMES ON LONG BRANCH ROAD REPORTED ROOF DAMAGE, NUMEROUS UPROOTED PINE TREES, AND A POWER POLE SNAPPED IN HALF. THERE WAS ALSO A ROOF BLOWN OFF OF A TRACTOR AND A HOME WITH BROKEN WINDOWS. |
| 17:55 UTC | TORNADO | 8 N Patterson | Appling, GA | SPOTTER REPORTED PINE TREES DOWNED, ROOF DAMAGE, AND SCATTERED DEBRIS AT A HOME OFF OF ROLLIE DEAL ROAD. |
| 18:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 6 Ne Bristol | Appling, GA | PUBLIC REPORT OF DAMAGING WINDS THAT UPROOTED FOUR LARGE PINE TREES...SPLIT A POWER POLE IN HALF...AND CAUSED ROOF DAMAGE TO A HOME IN THE LONG BRANCH COMMUNITY IN APPLING COUNTY. |
| 18:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nne Ludowici | Long, GA | LARGE LIMBS DOWN AND TOPS OF TREES TORN OFF ON ELIM CHURCH ROAD. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of December 24, 2014
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 24 | 10:30 AM EST | EF1 | New Hanover, NC | 0.2 | 25 | 1 | $60,000 | |
| December 24 | 5:16 PM EST | EF0 | Fairfield, OH | 0.6 | 30 | $15,000 |
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.