Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2016
EF0 tornado, Elpino, Georgia, March 31, 2016
This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Grady County on March 31, 2016, touching down at 7:38 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- March 31, 2016
- Touchdown
- 7:38 PM EDT (23:38 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:39 PM EDT (23:39 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.5 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $2,000
- County
- Grady County
- Touchdown point
- 31.070, -84.270
- Lift-off point
- 31.072, -84.266
- Record number
- 1603311738-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Scattered thunderstorms developed across portions of southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia with a few reports of large hail, wind damage, and even a brief tornado.
Two separate witnesses reported a brief tornado touchdown near Godwin Lane and County Line Road 262. The only damage was to power lines. This tornado was rated EF0.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
13 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:25 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:00 UTC | 10:31 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | TAE |
| 23:25 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | TAE |
| 23:37 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TAE |
| 23:39 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | TAE |
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 20:00 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
11.6 hours before the tornado, 75 km from the path. March 31, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 53 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -640 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 48 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1024 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 115 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 203 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.5 K/km
Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 00:00Z
0.4 hours after it, 75 km from the path. April 1, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 643 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -17 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1121 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 675 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 183 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 185 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.9
- Supercell composite
- 4.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
The radar
The Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 75 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:36 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:18 UTC | HAIL 1 | 4 Se Enterprise | Miller, GA | ESTIMATED QUARTER SIZE HAIL ALONG HIGHWAY 45 |
| 22:28 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 3 Ssw Boykin | Decatur, GA | DIME SIZE HAIL ALONG HIGHWAY 310 ALONG THE DECATUR AND MILLER COUNTY LINE |
| 23:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Bainbridge | Decatur, GA | TREE DOWN ON BUTLER FERRY ROAD |
| 23:38 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 8 Wsw Pelham | Grady, GA | POWER LINES DOWN NEAR GODWIN LANE AND COUNTY LINE ROAD 262. A CALLER ALSO REPORTED AN UNCONFIRMED TORNADO IN THAT AREA |
| 23:38 UTC | TORNADO | 8 Wsw Pelham | Grady, GA | POWER LINES DOWN NEAR GODWIN LANE AND COUNTY LINE ROAD 262. REPORT OF A BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN FROM TWO SEPARATE WITNESSES IN THE AREA. NO OTHER DAMAGE REPORTED AT THIS TIME |
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 March 31, 2016
19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 31 | 5:55 AM CDT | EF1 | Saint Helena Parish, LA | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| March 31 | 6:05 AM CDT | EF1 | Tangipahoa Parish, LA | 4.6 | 250 | |||
| March 31 | 7:53 AM CDT | EF1 | Lamar, MS | 1.4 | 50 | $70,000 | ||
| March 31 | 2:02 PM CDT | EF1 | Daviess, KY | 3.0 | 250 | $100,000 | ||
| March 31 | 4:40 PM EDT | EF1 | Tippecanoe, IN | 0.1 | 30 | $50,000 | ||
| March 31 | 4:28 PM CDT | EF1 | Hardin, TN | 1.5 | 75 | $25,000 | ||
| March 31 | 4:31 PM CDT | EF0 | Perry, TN | 3.5 | 350 | $20,000 | ||
| March 31 | 4:45 PM CDT | EF0 | Lewis, TN | 0.7 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| March 31 | 5:49 PM EDT | EF1 | Noble, IN | 0.5 | 30 | |||
| March 31 | 5:56 PM EDT | EF1 | Wabash, IN | 0.7 | 60 | |||
| March 31 | 5:56 PM EDT | EF0 | White, IN | 3.1 | 120 | |||
| March 31 | 6:18 PM CDT | EF1 | Lowndes, MS to AL | 7.8 | 600 | $225,000 | ||
| March 31 | 6:43 PM CDT | EF1 | Pickens, AL | 2.9 | 350 | |||
| March 31 | 7:03 PM CDT | EF1 | Fayette, AL | 3.7 | 650 | |||
| March 31 | 7:27 PM CDT | EF1 | Fayette, AL | 3.7 | 500 | |||
| March 31 | 8:05 PM CDT | EF0 | Fayette, AL | 1.9 | 400 | |||
| March 31 | 9:42 PM CDT | EF1 | Blount, AL | 0.3 | 275 | |||
| March 31 | 9:54 PM CDT | EF2 | Morgan, AL | 9.6 | 200 | |||
| March 31 | 12:19 AM CDT | EF0 | Lee, AL | 2.1 | 50 |
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.