EF1 tornado, Fortson to Rehobeth, Georgia, February 7, 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

February 7, 2017

Touchdown

4:36 PM EST (21:36 UTC)

Lifted

4:39 PM EST (21:39 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.7 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Harris County

Touchdown point

32.623, -84.906

Lift-off point

32.647, -84.877

Record number

1702071536-01

23 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 95 mph.

• Pole snapped but uncertain as to what caused it to snap.
• not sure where the roofing came from
• tree fell on house and through the roof

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

A strong upper-level trough and short wave swept through the region during the afternoon and evening. A marginally unstable air mass in place across central Georgia combined with moderate mid and deep-layer shear were enough to produce scattered severe thunderstorms, and an isolated tornado.

A National Weather Service survey team determined that an EF-1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 95 MPH and a maximum path width of 250 yards travelled for just under 2.5 miles along U.S Highway 27 in southern Harris County between the communities of Fortson and Cataula. The tornado began on West Bonacre Road just west of Highway 27, where a few small trees were snapped, and moved northeast, intensifying as it crossed Highway 27 north of Raymond Road where numerous trees were snapped or uprooted and several power lines and poles were brought down. The most significant damage was observed just northeast of this location along Gatlin Road where an estimated 50-100 large trees were snapped or uprooted. One large tree fell on a home at this location causing significant damage, however no injuries were reported. Continuing northeast, additional damage was observed between Knowles Road and Wells Drive where a grove of trees was snapped or uprooted on the east side of Highway 27. The tornado ended just northeast of the intersection of Wells Drive and Highway 27. [02/07/17: Tornado #1, County #1/1, EF1, Harris, 2017:029].

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

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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 Maxwell AFB radar (KMXX), 85 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:37 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

15 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.