EF2 tornado, Dublin Muni Arpt to Spann, Georgia, February 21, 2014

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

February 21, 2014

Touchdown

8:21 AM EST (13:21 UTC)

Lifted

8:41 AM EST (13:41 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

17.5 miles (28.1 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$540,000

Counties

Laurens and Johnson counties

Touchdown point

32.575, -82.975

Lift-off point

32.666, -82.696

Record number

1402210721-01

15 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 125 mph.

• Significant damage to 3br ranch yet surrounding damage to trees and power poles not indicative of winds > 120 mph. Walls straight nailed to sill plate. Garage door was shut. Residents at work at time of tornado. Two dogs in garage survived with no injuries.
• Shingles and flashing removed
• Dozens of trees snapped, many on houses.
• Wood frame barn with no walls and metal roof.

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

A cold front pushed across the Southeast on the 20th and 21st, with a QLCS (quasi-linear convective system) moving into northwest Georgia just after midnight on the 21st. Scattered reports of wind damage were received across north Georgia through the early morning hours. By mid-morning, the QLCS had pushed into central Georgia and intensified as instability increased, with a high-end EF2 tornado touching down in Laurens and Johnson Counties.

A National Weather Service storm survey team determined that an EF2 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 124 MPH touched down just east of the airport in Dublin, where a house was destroyed. The tornado then continued east through North Dublin where damage was consistent with 100-110 MPH winds. In Dublin, 59 houses were damaged and 300-500 trees were downed as a result of this QLCS tornado. The tornado weakened as it moved through Laurens County and finally into Johnson County.|[02/21/14: Tornado #1, County #1-2, EF2, Laurens-Johnson, 2014:002].

A National Weather Service storm survey team determined that the tornado that began in Laurens County continued into Johnson County. A mobile home was lifted off its foundation while another had its porch blown off by the storm. Doors of the Piney Mountain Fire Station were also blown off by the tornado. The tornado eventually dissipated northeast of the intersection between Highway 15/78 and Snell Bridge Road.|[02/21/14: Tornado #1, County #2-2, EF2, Laurens-Johnson, 2014:002].

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 11:43 UTC and running to 14:59 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:53 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.

Dublin (DBN), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 49 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:21 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

8 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.