EF1 tornado, Walls Crossing to Ellaville, Georgia, April 3, 2017

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 3, 2017

Touchdown

12:46 PM EDT (16:46 UTC)

Lifted

12:56 PM EDT (16:56 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

5.5 miles (8.8 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Schley County

Touchdown point

32.230, -84.357

Lift-off point

32.227, -84.263

Record number

1704031046-01

A strong short wave and associated surface low swept through the southern and eastern U.S. and combined with moderate instability and strong shear resulted in widespread severe weather, including numerous tornadoes, across north and central Georgia from late morning through the afternoon.

A National Weather Service survey team found that an EF1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 105 MPH and a maximum path width of 200 yards touched down west of Ellaville near a small farm south of Chancey Drive. The tornado moved east snapping and uprooting trees along its path south of Chancey Drive into southern Ellaville. The tornado snapped and uprooted dozens of trees as it crossed Pinefield Drive and Ridgewood Drive where several homes were impacted. The tornado continued east crossing Ebenezer Road and travelling along Pine Circle snapping trees and causing roof damage to homes. The tornado crossed South Callaway Drive and Broad Street where a large metal building collapsed onto peanut storage bins. The |tornado then turned southeast hitting a large warehouse and mobile home manufacturer. A metal building was heavily damaged and several new mobile homes were overturned in a holding lot. The tornado then turned east once again crossing Highway 19 and paralleling Highway 228, snapping a few trees, before lifting west of Lacross Road. In total, more than 40 homes were damaged with 3 destroyed by falling trees. Twelve businesses sustained damage of varying degrees and the entire town of Ellaville was without power for more than 24 hours. No injuries were reported. [04/03/17: Tornado #13, County #1/1, EF-1, Schley, 2017:45].

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

16 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:30 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 14:50 UTC and running to 18:29 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:21 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), 103 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:45 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 2017 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

39 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.