EF1 tornado, Bullard to Cooktown, Georgia, April 1, 2016

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

April 1, 2016

Touchdown

8:50 AM EDT (12:50 UTC)

Lifted

8:55 AM EDT (12:55 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.7 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$120,000

Counties

Twiggs and Wilkinson counties

Touchdown point

32.573, -83.259

Lift-off point

32.589, -83.225

Record number

1604010650-01

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ABR and NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• **aerial view** structural damage thrown northeast toward I-16.
• aerial view of damage along hwy 112/main street
• **aerial view** trees snapped/uprooted along US80.
• **aerial view** snapped/uprooted trees along US-80.

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

A deep upper-level trough and associated strong surface cold front swept through the region overnight and through the day. Moderate instability and strong low to mid-level shear ahead of this system brought strong to severe thunderstorms to Central Georgia early in the day. Damaging thunderstorm winds and a few tornadoes were observed.

A National Weather Service survey team found that an EF-0 tornado with 65 MPH winds touched down along Bullard Road and travelled around .6 miles northeast along the road snapping a few trees in a path about 60 yards wide before lifting. [04/01/16: Tornado #3, County #1-1, EF0, Twiggs, 2016:003].

A National Weather Service survey team found an EF-1 tornado with maximum winds of 95 MPH touched down between Moore Road and I-16 where it damaged two manufactured homes, one significantly with the majority of the roof lifted and partial collapse of the front exterior wall. Several trees surrounding the homes were snapped or uprooted. The tornado continued northeast crossing I-16 where a 300 yard swath of trees were down on either side of the interstate. Just west of the Wilkinson County line the tornado caused significant damage along State Highway 112, or Main Street, with two storage trailers sustaining major damage and several trees snapped or uprooted. The tornado then weakened but continued tracking northeast crossing into Wilkinson County on the southwest side of Allentown. [04/01/16: Tornado #4, County #1-2, EF1, Twiggs-Wilkinson, 2016:004].

A National Weather Service survey team found that the EF-1 tornado in eastern Twiggs County crossed a short distance into Wilkinson County after weakening to EF-0 strength, with maximum wind speeds around 75 MPH, leaving a sporadic path of damage in the southern portion of Allentown before ending along U.S. Highway 80. [04/01/16: Tornado #4, County #2-2, EF1, Twiggs-Wilkinson, 2016:004].

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 tornado watch, issued at 12:00 UTC and running to 19:00 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 05:46 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 Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 15 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:49 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 2016 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.