EF0 tornado, Crutchfield, Georgia, August 2, 2018

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

August 2, 2018

Touchdown

3:57 PM EDT (19:57 UTC)

Lifted

3:58 PM EDT (19:58 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$15,000

County

Jones County

Touchdown point

33.104, -83.660

Lift-off point

33.116, -83.648

Record number

1808021357-01

5 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 80 mph.

• Start point based on radar data. Reports of trees down from Piedmont NWR asst director (Carolyn Johnson) and Jones Co EM.
• Several trees downed along Round Oak and Juliette Rd
• 3-6 trees downed on property
• Minor roof damage to edge of metal roof above garage.

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

A series of short waves moving across the region in ahead of a deep upper-level trough over the Mississippi Valley brought several rounds of strong to severe thunderstorms to north and central Georgia. Several reports of damaging thunderstorm winds, flash flooding and even two isolated tornadoes were reported.

Information from the Jones County Emergency Manager and local media show that a brief, EF0, tornado with maximum wind speeds of 80 MPH and a maximum path width of 100 yards occurred in the northwest portion of the county on the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge. The tornado began about a quarter mile south of Round Oak-Juliette Road, traveled northeast parallel to and just south of the road before crossing the road just west of the intersection with Will Russell Road, downing several trees along the path. The tornado continued northeast downing a few more trees and causing minor damage to the metal roof of a home before lifting. [08/02/18: Tornado #2, County #1/1, EF-0, Jones, 2018:011].

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

1 minute of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:56 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:21 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.

Milledgeville (MLJ), 39 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), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:00 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 2018 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.