EF0 tornado, Milner Xrds to Liberty Hill, Georgia, April 14, 2019

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

April 14, 2019

Touchdown

11:39 AM EDT (15:39 UTC)

Lifted

11:42 AM EDT (15:42 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Lamar County

Touchdown point

33.069, -84.225

Lift-off point

33.084, -84.219

Record number

1904140939-01

3 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 90 mph.

• over 50 trees uprooted/snapped on the golf course

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

A surface low and associated cold front swept through the region ahead of a deep upper-level trough. Moderate instability and strong shear, combined with the vigorous mid and upper-level dynamics to produce scattered reports of damaging thunderstorm winds and isolated tornadoes.

A National Weather Service survey determined that an EF0 tornado with maximum wind speeds 75 mph and a maximum path width of 75 yards touched down in western Lamar County just north of Highway 18 and west of Five Points Road. The short-lived tornado moved northeast crossing Five Points Road and snapping or uprooting several trees before dissipating south of Grove Street. No injuries were reported. [04/14/19: Tornado #3, County #1/1, EF-0, Lamar, 2019:023].

A National Weather Service survey determined that an EF1 tornado with maximum wind speeds 90 mph and a maximum path width of 150 yards touched down in northern Lamar County near the intersection of Weldon Lake Road and Silver Dollar Road, snapping several trees. The tornado moved northeast along Weldon Lake Road snapping or uprooting more trees. As the tornado crossed Evans Road, numerous trees were downed with one falling onto a carport attached to a home. The house next door had damage to shingles on its roof. The tornado continued northeast, intensifying as it reached the Morgan Dairy Golf Course and crossed Morgan Dairy Road. Over 50 trees were downed on the golf course and numerous others were downed along Morgan Dairy Road. Continuing northeast, the tornado crossed McKneely Road downing numerous trees and power lines before weakening and crossing into Spalding County near Brown Road. No injuries were reported. [04/14/19: Tornado #4, County #1/2, EF-1, Lamar, 2019:024].

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:17 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 15:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 11:28 UTC and running to 18:00 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 12:52 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.

Thomaston (OPN), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:36 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 2019 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

33 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.