EF1 tornado, Rockingham to New Lacy, Georgia, January 4, 2015

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

January 4, 2015

Touchdown

1:03 PM EST (18:03 UTC)

Lifted

1:08 PM EST (18:08 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

4.8 miles (7.7 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

County

Bacon County

Touchdown point

31.535, -82.429

Lift-off point

31.572, -82.360

Record number

1501041203-01

A pre-frontal squall line crossed the area during the afternoon. Enough low level shear was present to form rotating storms across SE Georgia, and combined with elevated low level instability with highs in the upper 70s surface based rotation developed.

The tornado touched down near Radio Station Road. High end EF1 damage occurred along the path east of Johnson Lake Road along Georgia State Road 32. In this path the tornado severely damaged two mobile homes including a double wide trailer in which the walls were separated, the frame bent and flipped on its side. Large trees were snapped along the path. EF0 damage was noted along most of the path as the tornado tracked from Radio Station Road to McCarty as the storm approached State Road 32. The tornado continued northeast and weakened as it cross Ten Mile Creek over Mallard Road with a track ceasing near Bobwhite Road. The width of the tornado ranged between 30-50 yards. Two injuries occurred with one mobile home, and one resident was life-flighted with critical injuries. Both victims survived. The tornado was an EF1 with maximum winds of 100-110 mph.

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 tornado watch, issued at 16:38 UTC and running to 20:54 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 16:05 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.

Alma/Bacon Co. (AMG), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Moody AFB radar (KVAX), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:03 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 2015 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.