EF1 tornado, Retreat to Riceboro, Georgia, September 2, 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

September 2, 2016

Touchdown

3:50 AM EDT (07:50 UTC)

Lifted

3:59 AM EDT (07:59 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

4.8 miles (7.8 km)

Path width

650 yards (594 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Liberty County

Touchdown point

31.660, -81.380

Lift-off point

31.730, -81.380

Record number

1609020150-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CHS, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 98 mph.

• Tent/ outbuilding destroyed. Large Plastic Water tank (1/2 filled) was tipped over.
• Part of metal roof peeled off of wooden building.

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

Hermine developed as a Tropical Depression near the north coast of Cuba on August 28th. The depression then tracked westward into the central Gulf of Mexico and strengthened into a Tropical Storm. Hermine then tracked generally northeastward and strengthened into a Hurricane. According to the National Hurricane Center, Hermine made landfall as a Category 1 Hurricane at 1:30 am EDT on September 2nd along the Florida Big Bend coast just east of St. Marks, Florida, near the Wakulla-Jefferson County line. Hermine continued on a northeastward track across the Florida panhandle and into southeast Georgia and southeast South Carolina, gradually weakening back to a Tropical Storm. Across southeast Georgia and southeast South Carolina, the main impacts from Hermine included heavy rain and wind damage in the form of scattered to numerous trees being blown down. Storm total rainfall amounts generally ranged from 2 to 8 inches across the region, including a daily record rainfall of 2.32 inches at the Charleston International Airport. The wind damage produced numerous power outages and even some damage to homes and other structures throughout the area. Hermine spawned 2 tornadoes, and produced a 1.5 to 2.5 foot storm surge along the coast, though no flooding was reported.

A National Weather Service survey team confirmed a tornado near Riceboro. The tornado touched down just north of Blackbeard Creek, about one half of a mile east of Interstate 95. The tornado moved north at 30 to 35 miles per hour toward the remote and heavily wooded area of South Hampton Island, and then continued north across North Hampton Island. Overall, it was estimated that a few thousand trees were snapped or uprooted across the region. The worst damage occurred across portions of North Hampton Island where many large oak and pine trees were snapped or had large limbs removed. Additionally, minor damage occurred to a few structures throughout the property due to trees falling on them. The tornado dissipated just north of Ferry Road on North Hampton Island.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS CHS issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:23 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:47 UTC and running to 11:51 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:18 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.

Ft Stewart/Wright (LHW), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:52 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.