EF1 tornado, Dubois to Gresston, Georgia, April 5, 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 5, 2017

Touchdown

3:05 PM EDT (19:05 UTC)

Lifted

3:14 PM EDT (19:14 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

4.1 miles (6.6 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Dodge County

Touchdown point

32.276, -83.289

Lift-off point

32.301, -83.225

Record number

1704051305-01

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 97 mph.

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

Another strong short wave, the second in three days, rotated through a large and deep upper-level trough over the eastern U.S. A deep surface low and strong cold front moved through the state combining with moderate instability and strong low-level shear to produce another round of widespread severe weather across north and central Georgia, including several tornadoes.

A National Weather Service survey team found that an EF1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 105 MPH and a maximum path width of 350 yards touched down West of Hardy Road, damaging a few homes and storage buildings as it crossed Hardy Road. The damage was mostly minor roof damage. Several trees were snapped and uprooted in the area as well. The tornado moved northeast crossing Garrett Oxley road where it |destroyed a travel trailer and a small barn and lofting a metal parking cover that was never found. The van that was parked under the cover was turned sideways and left a scar in the ground about 7 feet in length from the tires dragging in the dirt. The tornado entered the northwest side of Gresston on Gresston Baptist Road where |numerous large pines were snapped and some roof damage was noted to the Baptist Church. Further northeast along Rozar-Goolsby Road, numerous trees were snapped or uprooted and several homes sustained roof damage. Another church along this street also sustained roof damage. The tornado continued northeast along Wilson Woodward Road snapping and uprooting trees before ending shortly after crossing Bell Line Road. No injuries were reported. [04/05/17: Tornado #6, County #1/1, EF-1, Dodge, 2017:065].

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

18 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:47 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:54 UTC and running to 00:00 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 16:29 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), 44 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:06 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

23 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.