EF1 tornado, Boydville to Akridge, Georgia, February 24, 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

February 24, 2016

Touchdown

2:45 AM EST (07:45 UTC)

Lifted

3:02 AM EST (08:02 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

12.8 miles (20.6 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Grady County

Touchdown point

30.860, -84.337

Lift-off point

30.968, -84.161

Record number

1602240145-01

38 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 94 mph.

• Multiple pine trees snapped.
• Single tree snapped. Southern edge.
• Center pivot irrigation blown over.
• Several pecan trees uprooted.

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

An unusually strong upper level trough and area of low pressure moved across the southeast states during the Feb 23-24 period, bringing with it numerous reports of wind damage and tornadoes. The low level jet was particularly strong with very strong 0-1 km shear values in excess of 60 knots. The 0-1 km helicity values were in excess of 1000 m2/s2 in some areas with CAPE values around 500 j/kg. There were a total of 11 tornadoes across southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia, including 9 EF1 tornadoes and 2 EF0 tornadoes.

The tornado touched down southeast of Whigham and traveled northeast, crossing Highway 84 between Whigham and Cairo. The tornado lifted northeast of Cairo. The bulk of the damage was to trees and power lines with some minor damage to a few homes, mainly caused by falling trees. The strongest winds were likely along Providence Road where multiple trees were snapped at various levels. In addition, a partially strapped mobile home was moved from its foundation just north of Cairo. Six people were inside the mobile home, and nobody was injured. This tornado was rated EF1 with max winds estimated at 90 mph. Damage cost was estimated.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

2 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:43 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:10 UTC and running to 09:15 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:43 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 Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:44 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

25 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.