EF0 tornado, Hillsdale to Phillipsburg, Georgia, February 21, 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

February 21, 2014

Touchdown

8:29 AM EST (13:29 UTC)

Lifted

8:31 AM EST (13:31 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

2.2 miles (3.6 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Tift County

Touchdown point

31.430, -83.576

Lift-off point

31.442, -83.541

Record number

1402210729-01

Steep mid-level lapse rates and an upper level trough moving through combined to produce a few severe storms across the area. Damaging straight line winds and one isolated, weak tornado occurred.

A fairly narrow corridor of damage points began west of Salem Church Rd about 0.8 mi south of Hwy 82 to the WSW of the city of Tifton. In these areas, mainly tree damage was noted with some large tree limbs snapped and a few trees uprooted. This damage path continued ENE into the vicinity of the Little River, before re-emerging just south of (and along) Hwy 82 near some residences and businesses. The first area affected was a neighborhood of manufactured homes centered around a pond along the south side of Highway 82. Tree damage was noted just south of this with some snapped trees and limbs. One home that was sitting on blocks slid off the blocks and was blown approximately 20 feet. Most of the other homes had only minor damage. A chain link fence was blown down to the north on the south side of the pond, while two billboards mounted on wooden poles were blown down to the west right along Highway 82 (north of the pond). The wooden support poles were snapped. This was indicative of a convergent damage pattern associated with a tornado. Just to the east, near the intersection of Hwy 82 and Marshall Drive, two sheds were flipped and blown back to the southwest - further indicating a convergent damage pattern. Other light debris along Highway 82 was blown in a similar direction. The tornado likely then shifted its motion to slightly south of east, and affected several more businesses north of Marshall Drive and south of Highway 82. Security camera footage from a business in this area showed some swirling rain curtains before very low visibility in strong winds prior to a loss of power. A metal building under construction near the intersection of Carpenter Rd and Marshall Dr was damaged and partially collapsed. Because construction was incomplete, it likely made it easier for the wind to cause the structure to fail. As the tornado crossed Carpenter Rd it likely began to dissipate as damage began to get more sporadic further east by Highway 319. There was some tree damage east of Carpenter Rd, and both the Lowe`s and Wal-Mart to the south of Highway 82 indicated they had some minor roof damage with some AC units moved or tipped over. Monetary damage was estimated.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 11:42 UTC and running to 14:32 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.

The Moody AFB radar (KVAX), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:26 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.