Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2015

EF0 tornado, DeKalb County, Georgia, November 18, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across DeKalb County on November 18, 2015, touching down at 5:47 PM EST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $60,000 of property damage.

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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
November 18, 2015
Touchdown
5:47 PM EST (22:47 UTC)
Lifted
5:48 PM EST (22:48 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$60,000
County
DeKalb County
Touchdown point
33.836, -84.198
Lift-off point
33.837, -84.197
Record number
1511181647-01

The damage survey

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 65 mph.

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

The warnings

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:00 UTC07:55 UTCFlood WatchFFC

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 19:51 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.

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 12:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 59 km from the path. November 18, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 12:00Z on 2015-11-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -175, lifted condensation level 548 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 12:00Z on 2015-11-18The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 399 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-175 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
548 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
399 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
497 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Atlanta/Dekalb (PDK), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:53 UTC6968140° 7 kt1014.2
21:36 UTC6968130° 6 kt1014.2
21:53 UTC6968 6 kt1014.2+RA BR
22:28 UTC68680° 0 kt1014.2VCTS RA BR
22:37 UTC6867290° 16 kt231015.6TSRA BR
22:41 UTC6665250° 21 kt301015.9-TSRA BR
22:49 UTC62.662.6270° 8 kt301015.2+TSRA FG
22:53 UTC6363 5 kt211014.6+TSRA FG
22:58 UTC62.662.6240° 5 kt1014.2TSRA BR
23:01 UTC6463230° 6 kt1014.2TSRA BR
23:03 UTC6463220° 5 kt1014.2TSRA BR
23:15 UTC6363140° 4 kt1014.6VCTS -RA BR
23:24 UTC6363110° 3 kt1014.6RA BR
23:35 UTC6363 4 kt1014.6RA BR
23:39 UTC6363 3 kt1014.6RA BR
23:53 UTC6464140° 6 kt1014.9RA BR

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

The radar

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:47 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:25 UTCLIGHTNINGMeadow LarkPaulding, GA*** 1 INJ *** LIGHTNING STRUCK A RESIDENCE. ONE POSSIBLE INJURY.
21:59 UTCTORNADOBear Creek EstatesFulton, GA*** 1 INJ *** NWS SURVEY DETERMINED THAT AN EF-1 TORNADO WITH MAXIMUM WINDS OF 95 MPH TOUCHED DOWN NEAR CREEKSIDE HIGH SCHOOL AND TRAVELED NORTH FOR 1.75 MILES DOWNING DOZENS OF TREES SEVERAL FALLING ON HOMES. ONE INJURY
22:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Sse Rosegate ManorFulton, GAA TREE WAS BLOWN DOWN ONTO A POWER LINE ON VIRLYN B SMITH ROAD.
22:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Sse Rosegate ManorFulton, GANUMEROUS TREES BLOWN DOWN ON VIRLYN B SMITH RD FROM PROBABLE TORNADO.
22:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Wsw Rosegate ManorFulton, GAPROBABLE TORNADO DOWNED TREES AND LIVE POWER LINES AT THE INTERSECTION OF JOHNS RIVER RD AND RIVERTOWN RD.
22:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGRosegate ManorFulton, GALIKELY TORNADO DAMAGE CONSISTING OF DOWNED TREES AND POWER LINES ON TELL RD.
22:47 UTCTORNADO1 Ssw Mountain WoodsDekalb, GAA VERY BRIEF EF-0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN FOR LESS THAN A MINUTE JUST NE OF THE US-78E / MOUNTAIN INDUSTRIAL BLVD EXIT NEAR TUCKER. ROOF WAS PARTIALLY PEELED BACK AND THE FRONT WALL WAS DAMAGED AT A BUSINESS AT 4690 HAMMER
22:48 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Ssw Mountain WoodsDekalb, GAROOF WAS PARTIALLY PEELED BACK AND THE FRONT WALL WAS DAMAGED AT A BUSINESS AT 4690 HAMMER MILL RD.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 18, 2015

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 1812:05 AM CSTEF0Leake, MS0.575$5,000
November 1812:05 AM CSTEF1Leake, MS7.3400$50,000
November 1812:14 AM CSTEF1Leake, MS8.1500$40,000
November 1812:21 AM CSTEF1Leake, MS7.0250$10,000
November 1812:30 AM CSTEF1Leake, MS3.0300$13,000
November 1812:30 AM CSTEF1Neshoba, MS0.3250$3,000
November 1812:41 AM CSTEF1Winston, MS2.2300$8,000
November 1812:45 AM CSTEF1Winston, MS1.7150$20,000
November 181:06 AM CSTEF0Pontotoc, MS9.2250$100,000
November 183:53 AM CSTEF0Lowndes, MS2.250$8,000
November 1811:35 AM CSTEF0Walton, FL0.025
November 1812:05 PM CSTEF0Walton, FL0.150
November 184:48 PM ESTEF1Coweta, GA0.2200$50,000
November 184:59 PM ESTEF1Fulton, GA2.62001$150,000
November 186:05 PM ESTEF0Gadsden, FL2.750

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.