EF2 tornado, Wilmington Is to Savannah Beach, Georgia, May 23, 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

May 23, 2017

Touchdown

5:53 PM EDT (21:53 UTC)

Lifted

6:03 PM EDT (22:03 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

7.5 miles (12.1 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Chatham County

Touchdown point

31.985, -80.997

Lift-off point

32.033, -80.882

Record number

1705231553-01

29 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CHS, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 116 mph.

• Minimal loss of asphalt shingles
• Large uprooted tree and portion of wooden dock destroyed and thrown 50-100 feet.
• Damage and debris visible beyond site into marsh. Could see some dock damage well in the distance
• Minor roof damage at corner. Mostly large snapped trees hard and softwood

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

A strong line of thunderstorms developed in the mid afternoon hours across south Georgia and tracked into southeast Georgia. This line of storms eventually produced damaging wind gusts and even a tornado in Chatham County. The tornado then moved into the Atlantic coastal waters and was responsible for 3 fatalities.

A National Weather Service storm survey team confirmed an EF2 tornado across Wilmington Island in Chatham County. The tornado touched down on the southern end of Wilmington Island near the intersection of Wilmington Island Road and Biltmore Road. At this point, the tornado was rated EF1 in strength, with maximum winds of up to 100 to 110 mph. The tornado moved east along Biltmore Road, then turned more east-northeast along a portion of Walthour Road. Across this entire area of southern Wilmington Island, the bulk of the damage was in the form of large snapped and uprooted trees. The Chatham County Emergency Management Agency reported that approximately 30 homes sustained damage, ranging from minor shingle loss to moderate or major damage due to trees or large limbs hitting the homes. At least one home surveyed along Walthour Road sustained direct structural damage from the tornado, with the roof to a sunroom being torn off. The tornado continued east-northeast across several miles of marsh, which extends from east of Walthour Road to Highway 80 near Fort Pulaski. Radar evidence, surveyed damage, and eye witness video indicated that the tornado strengthened to a low end EF2 as it approached Fort Pulaski. The tornado moved near the visitor center of Fort Pulaski, where it caused the concrete walls and roof structure to shift and buckle. A smaller building next to the main visitor center had similar damage. There were many hardwood trees snapped close to the base of their trunks all around the complex of Fort Pulaski, along with at least two mid-sized vehicles in the parking lot that were pushed and rolled over. The tornado then progressed across the parking lot, just north of Fort Pulaski, where it exited into the Atlantic Ocean as a strong waterspout.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS CHS issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:41 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:49 UTC and running to 03:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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.

Hunter (Aaf) (SVN), 19 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), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:50 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

11 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.