Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2018
EF0 tornado, Lollie to Rockledge, Georgia, April 7, 2018
From Lollie to Rockledge, this EF0 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Laurens County on April 7, 2018, touching down at 6:18 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $8,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF0
- Date
- April 7, 2018
- Touchdown
- 6:18 PM EDT (22:18 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:19 PM EDT (22:19 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.7 miles (1.2 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $8,000
- County
- Laurens County
- Touchdown point
- 32.496, -82.710
- Lift-off point
- 32.496, -82.698
- Record number
- 1804071618-01
The damage survey
2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 75 mph.
- possibly 1 or 2 trees snapped along the pond in between the two roads. need to deplot point
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
Despite minimal instability across the region, a strong cold front and moderate shear managed to produce a brief tornado in central Georgia.
A National Weather Service survey team found that an EF0 tornado with a maximum wind speed of 75 mph and a maximum path width of 50 yards touched down east southeast of Dublin between Leon Joiner Road and Graham Pond. The Dublin Police Chief witnessed the tornado as it moved east across Graham Pond, uprooting and snapping several trees before it dissipated shortly after crossing Walter Wynn Road. [04/07/18: Tornado #1, County #1/1, EF-0, Laurens, 2018:008].
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
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 air that afternoon
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.
Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 12:00Z
10.3 hours before the tornado, 194 km from the path. April 7, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 5 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -62 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 596 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 45 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 241 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 232 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.5 K/km
Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 00:00Z
1.7 hours after it, 194 km from the path. April 8, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -98388 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 812 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 60 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 11 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -49 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 9 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
The surface observations
Dublin (DBN), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:35 UTC | 69.8 | 60.8 | 250° 4 kt | 1005.8 | ||
| 20:55 UTC | 69.8 | 60.8 | 250° 3 kt | 1005.4 | RA | |
| 21:15 UTC | 66.2 | 60.8 | 250° 3 kt | 1005.4 | RA | |
| 21:35 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 340° 11 kt | 20 | 1005.8 | +RA |
| 21:55 UTC | 60.8 | 60.8 | 340° 4 kt | 1006.1 | -RA | |
| 22:15 UTC | 60.8 | 60.8 | 340° 7 kt | 1006.1 | ||
| 22:35 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 330° 8 kt | 1006.4 | ||
| 22:55 UTC | 60.8 | 59 | 330° 7 kt | 1006.4 | ||
| 23:10 UTC | 60.8 | 59 | 330° 7 kt | 1006.8 | ||
| 23:35 UTC | 60.8 | 59 | 310° 5 kt | 1007.5 | ||
| 23:55 UTC | 60.8 | 59 | 320° 7 kt | 1007.5 | ||
| 00:15 UTC | 60.8 | 59 | 300° 5 kt | 1007.8 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:18 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:18 UTC | TORNADO | 3 E Minter | Laurens, GA | POLICE CHIEF SAW THE TORNADO COME TO THE GROUND FOR ABOUT 40 SECONDS THEN LIFT. THE TORNADO TOOK OUT SEVERAL POWER LINES AND TREE LIMBS. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 7, 2018
6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 7 | 1:17 AM CDT | EF1 | Beauregard Parish, LA | 7.9 | 1,000 | $150,000 | ||
| April 7 | 1:36 AM CDT | EF1 | Beauregard Parish, LA | 1.2 | 600 | $50,000 | ||
| April 7 | 1:44 AM CDT | EF1 | Beauregard Parish, LA | 8.9 | 1,200 | $300,000 | ||
| April 7 | 2:14 AM CDT | EF0 | Allen Parish, LA | 0.5 | 100 | $10,000 | ||
| April 7 | 5:18 AM CDT | EF1 | Saint James Parish, LA | 1.3 | 50 | |||
| April 7 | 6:30 PM MDT | EF0 | Bingham, ID | 0.5 | 10 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.