EF1 tornado, Scrutchins to Huntington, 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 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

May 23, 2017

Touchdown

12:56 PM EDT (16:56 UTC)

Lifted

1:16 PM EDT (17:16 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

10.6 miles (17.1 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

Counties

Lee and Sumter counties

Touchdown point

31.854, -84.236

Lift-off point

31.981, -84.135

Record number

1705231056-01

9 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 88 mph.

• tree uprooted along Brady road
• some minor roof damage. tarp on backside of home
• Tree limbs and tops damaged
• Trees downed on the west side of US19

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

A couple of days of severe weather impacted southern Georgia on May 23rd and 24th. Two EF0 tornadoes occurred, and some straight line wind damage also occurred with impacts to trees and power lines.

A surface cold front and mid-level short wave associated with a large, deep upper-level trough over the central U.S. swept through the region. Moderate instability combined with strong deep-layer shear to produce scattered severe thunderstorms and isolated tornadoes across north and central Georgia. Deep, rich moisture resulted in very heavy rainfall as well, producing isolated reports of flash flooding.

An EF1 tornado with max winds estimated near 90 mph touched down in Lee county and moved in Sumter county. The EF1 damage was due to trees, and no structures were impacted in Lee county.

An National Weather Service survey team found that an EF0 tornado with a maximum path width of 100 yards and maximum winds of 74 MPH crossed into Sumter County from Lee County east of Highway 377 in a marshy area moving northeast. The tornado crossed RW Jones Road where 2 houses sustained minor roof damage. Further northeast, trees were downed along Wilson Battle Road and Brady Road before the tornado ended near Bone Road. No injuries were reported. [05/23/17: Tornado #1, County #2/2, EF-0, Lee, Sumter, 2017:072].

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 14:11 UTC and running to 22:00 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 16:23 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.

Americus (ACJ), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:57 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.