EF1 tornado, Savannah to Thunderbolt, Georgia, July 27, 2018

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

July 27, 2018

Touchdown

3:49 PM EDT (19:49 UTC)

Lifted

3:57 PM EDT (19:57 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

2.4 miles (3.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Chatham County

Touchdown point

32.064, -81.029

Lift-off point

32.038, -81.005

Record number

1807271349-01

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CHS, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 94 mph.

• Beginning of tornado. Large hardwood trees uprooted near Bartow Point drive.

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

A cluster of thunderstorms developed near the southeast Georgia coast in advance of a stationary front inland. As these thunderstorms moved to the south and southeast closer to the coast, they interacted with the sea breeze and moved into an environment conducive to the development rotating updrafts. A tornado developed quickly and impacted portions of Chatham County.

A National Weather Service storm survey team confirmed that an EF-1 tornado impacted portions of Chatham County. The tornado began near Bartow Point Drive, just north of Island Expressway. The tornado then crossed over the Frank W. Spencer Boat Ramp and Fishing Pier area before crossing Island Expressway. The tornado continued southeast across Oatland Island where it was estimated to have snapped or uprooted over 100 large hardwood and softwood trees. It also removed the roof from a log cabin and partially damaged the roof to another structure in the Delk-Dawson Heritage Homestead on Oatland Island. The tornado continued southeast over Richardson Creek, entering the Grays subdivision on Whitemarsh Island. In this neighborhood, the tornado snapped and uprooted many large trees. The most significant damage surveyed in the Grays subdivision were large snapped and uprooted trees that had fallen onto approximately 50 homes. Several homes also had significant shingle damage. The tornado then crossed Highway 80, moving over Islands Christian Church before taking a narrow path along Dolphin Lane, Passing near Marsh Point Elementary School. The school sustained moderate damage to the roof near the main entry of the facility. Finally, the tornado moved southeast across Whitemarsh Island Drive before dissipating near Islands High School, where it toppled the metal bleachers and damaged some fencing near athletic fields. The tornado was on the ground for approximately 8 minutes.

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.

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 16:30 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.

The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 67 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:49 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

6 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.