EF1 tornado, Brookton, Georgia, April 19, 2019

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

April 19, 2019

Touchdown

5:50 AM EDT (09:50 UTC)

Lifted

5:53 AM EDT (09:53 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.4 miles (3.8 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

County

Hall County

Touchdown point

34.410, -83.778

Lift-off point

34.420, -83.739

Record number

1904190350-01

20 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GSP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The highest wind the damage implies is 87 mph.

• Trees falling to the south. Took out power pole.

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

Another in a series of deep upper-level troughs and its associated surface low and cold front moved through the region. Marginal instability but moderate to high shear and strong dynamics resulted in a line of strong thunderstorms, with isolated damaging winds and a few tornadoes, that swept through north and central Georgia during the morning. Training storms and ample moisture produced a swath of heavy rain stretching from Lake Harding in Harris County, through the southern metro Atlanta area, and into Banks County in northeast Georgia. Along this line three to eight inches of rain fell, with two to four inches north and west of this line.

A National Weather Service survey determined that an EF1 tornado with maximum wind speeds 90 mph and a maximum path width of 300 yards touched down in northern Hall County along Napone Road west of Clarks Bridge Road. The tornado travelled east northeast along Napone Road, crossed Clarks Bridge Road and continued east northeast along Glade Farm Road before lifting near Glade Lake before reaching Flat Creek. Numerous trees were blown down or snapped along this path and the steeple was blown off of the Dewberry Baptist Church. No injuries were reported. [04/19/19: Tornado #2, County #1/1, EF-1, Hall, 2019:026].

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:50 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:00 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. The outlook in force was issued at 05:56 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.

Gainsville (GVL), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 139 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:52 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

44 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.