Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2018
EF0 tornado, Lake Howard, Georgia, June 22, 2018
This EF0 tornado ran 1.3 miles across Walker County on June 22, 2018, touching down at 8:06 PM EDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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
- June 22, 2018
- Touchdown
- 8:06 PM EDT (00:06 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:09 PM EDT (00:09 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 1.3 miles (2.1 km)
- Path width
- 150 yards (137 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $10,000
- County
- Walker County
- Touchdown point
- 34.752, -85.263
- Lift-off point
- 34.743, -85.244
- Record number
- 1806221806-01
The damage survey
8 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.
- Tree down on house (1500 Blk of Lake Howard Rd)
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
A deep, closed upper-level low over the center of the country resulted in widespread thunderstorms across north and central Georgia. Numerous reports of damaging thunderstorm winds were received.
The National Weather Service in conjunction with the Walker County Emergency Manager, and with the aid of video provided by the public, determined that a brief EF0 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 80 mph and a maximum path width of 150 yards, travelled 1.3 miles across a portion of eastern Walker County, north of the city of Lafayette. The tornado touched down near the intersection of Wheeler Road and Warren Road, just east of Highway 27, snapping a few trees. The tornado traveled southeast toward Lake Howard Road, producing several areas of damage between Ringgold Road and Lucas Lane, including two small barns that sustained significant damage and several larger trees either uprooted or snapped. A section of roof shingles was pulled up from a two-story home. No injuries were reported. [06/22/18: Tornado #1, County #1/1, EF-0, Walker, 2018:009].
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:10 UTC | 19:13 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | FFC |
| 17:32 UTC | 18:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC |
| 18:02 UTC | 18:27 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:43 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 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), 00:00Z
0.1 hours before the tornado, 168 km from the path. June 23, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 402 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -97 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 466 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1128 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 121 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 136 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 0.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.2 K/km
Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 12:00Z
11.9 hours after it, 168 km from the path. June 23, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 670 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -35 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1152 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 634 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 136 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 129 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.3
- Supercell composite
- 2.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
The surface observations
LaFayette (9A5), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:15 UTC | 77.5 | 70.5 | 170° 5 kt | 1009.8 | ||
| 22:35 UTC | 75.4 | 71 | 0° 0 kt | 1009.8 | ||
| 22:55 UTC | 76 | 70.2 | 0° 0 kt | 1009.8 | ||
| 23:15 UTC | 76.3 | 70.7 | 180° 3 kt | 1009.5 | ||
| 23:35 UTC | 75 | 70.3 | 0° 0 kt | 1009.8 | ||
| 23:55 UTC | 74.3 | 71 | 0° 0 kt | 1009.5 | ||
| 00:15 UTC | 74.8 | 70.3 | 200° 3 kt | 1009.8 | ||
| 00:35 UTC | 74 | 70.2 | 0° 0 kt | 1009.8 | ||
| 00:55 UTC | 73.4 | 71.6 | 0° 0 kt | 1009.8 | ||
| 01:15 UTC | 73.2 | 72 | 200° 5 kt | 1010.5 | ||
| 01:35 UTC | 70.2 | 69.4 | 0° 0 kt | 1010.2 | ||
| 01:55 UTC | 70.2 | 69.8 | 0° 0 kt | 1009.8 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 S Noble | Walker, GA | MULTIPLE REPORTS OF DAMAGE ON THE NORTH SIDE OF LAFAYETTE FROM A POSSIBLE TORNADO. DAMAGE CURRENTLY INCLUDS ROOF DAMAGE TO A HOUSE, HEAVY DAMAGE TO A BARN, AND SEVERAL TREES SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. DAMAGE SEEMS TO BE CENTRA |
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 June 22, 2018
6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.