Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2016

EF0 tornado, Flat Ford, Georgia, June 26, 2016

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Cook County on June 26, 2016, touching down at 1:45 PM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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
June 26, 2016
Touchdown
1:45 PM EDT (17:45 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000
County
Cook County
Touchdown point
31.170, -83.540
Lift-off point
31.170, -83.540
Record number
1606261145-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered afternoon thunderstorms developed in an environment of high instability favorable for microbursts. A couple of storms became severe with downed trees and power lines. Eyewitness video also confirmed a very brief, weak tornado near Reed Bingham State Park on June 26th due to a local boundary collision.

Video taken by the public and posted on social media confirmed that a very brief tornado occurred near Reed Bingham State Park. The tornado appeared to last around one minute or less. The only damage as reported by the emergency manager was part of a tree that fell on a house. The tornado was rated EF0.

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

The warnings

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

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:13 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.

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 12:00Z

5.8 hours before the tornado, 112 km from the path. June 26, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2016-06-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 747 joules per kilogram, CIN -90, lifted condensation level 1213 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2016-06-26The 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 6 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 knots.1939Sfc1 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
747 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-90 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1637 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1213 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-4 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 00:00Z

6.2 hours after it, 112 km from the path. June 27, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2016-06-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 853 joules per kilogram, CIN -55, lifted condensation level 1067 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2016-06-27The 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 4 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 8 knots.1939Sfc1 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
853 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-55 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1104 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1067 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
1 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
4 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
17 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Moody AFB radar (KVAX), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:42 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
17:42 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Ese MorvenBrooks, GATREE DOWN ON LAWSON MILL POND ROAD.
17:45 UTCTORNADO 0Reed Bingham State ParkCook, GAVIDEO TAKEN BY THE PUBLIC AND RELAYED BY MEDIA CONFIRMED THAT A VERY BRIEF TORNADO OCCURRED NEAR REED BINGHAM STATE PARK ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON. THE TORNADO APPEARED TO LAST AROUND ONE MINUTE OR LESS. PART OF A TREE FELL ON
18:24 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ene PavoBrooks, GATWO TREES DOWN ON TALLOKAS ROAD...ONE AT COFFEE ROAD AND ONE AT HIGHWAY 122.
18:37 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Se PavoBrooks, GATREE DOWN TOOK OUT POWERLINES ON ADAMS ROAD.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 26, 2016

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 262:30 AM CDTEF1Waupaca, WI2.7100$200,000

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.