EF3 tornado, Sand Hill to Allenville, Georgia, January 22, 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 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

January 22, 2017

Touchdown

3:29 AM EST (08:29 UTC)

Lifted

3:58 AM EST (08:58 UTC)

On the ground

29 minutes

Path length

24.7 miles (39.7 km)

Path width

700 yards (640 m)

Deaths

11

Injuries

45

Property damage

$2.5 million

Counties

Brooks, Cook and Berrien counties

Touchdown point

31.000, -83.584

Lift-off point

31.156, -83.210

Record number

1701220229-01

27 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 mph.

• Several snapped and uprooted.
• one tree debarked, twisting of trees in all directions many trees snapped and uprooted
• Entire home blown 90 ft into street

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

A multi-day severe weather event struck the southeast January 21-22, 2017 with three rounds of severe weather moving through the area. The first round of severe weather started during the mid-morning hours on Saturday, January 21, 2017 as a squall line pushed into southeast Alabama and the Florida panhandle. As it pushed eastward nine warnings were issued with a total of 18 damaging wind reports (trees and power lines downed) related to these storms. ||After a brief lull during Saturday evening as the aforementioned squall line washed out near the Gulf Coast, strong southerly flow returned late Saturday night as a warm front pushed northward across the Florida Big Bend and southern Georgia. Initially with this late Saturday night to early Sunday morning event, a strong supercell moved across southern Georgia producing a tornado that moved across Thomas and northern Brooks Counties. This was the first tornado across the area with this multi- day event. From the same supercell that produced the tornado in Thomas and northern Brooks Counties, another tornado developed that tracked across Brooks, Berrien and Cook Counties and this tornado resulted in 11 fatalities. This overnight into early Sunday morning event produced one more tornado, an EF-1 that struck Lowndes County. ||A final round of severe weather moved through Sunday afternoon as a warm front continued to push northward into southeast Alabama and southern Georgia while the main low and trailing cold front pushed eastward across the Florida panhandle and offshore regions. This afternoon round of supercells first produced a tornado in Henry County, AL. An hour and a half after the Henry County tornado, two more tornadoes developed, an EF-2 that struck Clay, Randolph and Calhoun Counties (Georgia) and an EF-1 tornado that hit Franklin County, FL. After this, a long tracked tornado (track length of more than 70 miles) moved across Albany (Dougherty County) and into Worth and Turner Counties, causing extensive damage and five fatalities. ||Overall this multi-day event resulted in seven tornadoes, 16 deaths and numerous injuries. Three days of damage surveys were conducted to rate the tornadoes on the Enhanced Fujita scale.

This was the second tornado to touch down from the same parent tornado that impacted Thomas and northwest Brooks Counties. The tornado touched down at EF-1 strength in northern Brooks County near Georgia Route 122 just west of the Moultrie Highway, snapping trees along the highway. Near the intersection of Georgia Route 133, or the Valdosta Highway, the tornado strengthened to EF-3 blowing out two of the four concrete walls of a small business building. Max winds were estimated near 140 mph. A short distance later, the tornado flipped a strapped-down double wide mobile home and tossed it about 100 feet into a drainage ditch and across Route 122. Two people inside the home were killed. Several nearby trees had their bark stripped off. The tornado then crossed Georgia Route 76 at EF-3 strength and ripped about a third of the second story from a well-built brick home. A short distance up the road, the tornado shifted a wood-framed home about 12 feet off its foundation while removing its second story. This tornado then continued into Cook and Berrien counties. Damage cost was estimated.

This is a continuation of the northeast Brooks county tornado. The tornado then continued into Cook County. Still at EF-3 strength, it swept about 35 manufactured homes into a pile of rubble at the far end of the Sunshine Acres mobile home park. Seven people lost their lives. The tornado then went on to destroy about two thirds of a brick home on Val Del Road, collapsing in two walls and removing most of the second story. Another home built of concrete blocks was destroyed. A nearby farm had several concrete anchors for a large metal structure pulled from the ground. Max winds were estimated near 140 mph. Damage cost was estimated.

The EF3 tornado from northeast Brooks and Cook counties progressed into Berrien County where it completely removed the second story of a wood frame home on South Coffee Road. Just up the road, a well-strapped double wide home was completely removed and tossed into nearby trees and hedges. The last of the EF3 damage occurred on Old Lois Road where most of the roof of a brick home was removed. An add-on room on the back of the home was flattened by a massive live oak tree crushing two occupants to death in their bed. The tornado continued past Old Valdosta Road stripping bark from several trees in the area and then produced EF2 damage just past U.S. Route 129 on County Road before lifting. Damage cost was estimated.

The deaths

11 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:10 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:41 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 08:22 UTC and running to 17:47 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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 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.

Moody Afb/Valdosta (VAD), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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

20 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.