EF0 tornado, Bloomfield to Lanier Hgts, Georgia, March 3, 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

March 3, 2019

Touchdown

3:36 PM EST (20:36 UTC)

Lifted

3:38 PM EST (20:38 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.7 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Bibb County

Touchdown point

32.830, -83.638

Lift-off point

32.842, -83.627

Record number

1903031436-01

A powerful storm system moved across the mid-south and southeast United States producing widespread severe weather and numerous tornadoes. In middle Georgia, significant damage from fourteen separate tornadoes was observed. Thousands of trees were snapped or uprooted and numerous homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed. Across central Georgia, incredibly, no deaths were reported, with only around a dozen minor injuries.

A National Weather Service survey team found that an EF0 tornado with maximum winds of 85 mph and a maximum path width of 150 yards moved across portions of downtown Macon. The tornado touched down around the intersection of Oglethorpe and 1st Street and moved north-northeast along 1st Street. The tornado crossed Arch Street where a transformer was blown. A building at Hemlock Street and 1st Street had second story windows blown in. At the Medical Center along 1st Street and Hemlock Street, a large flag pole was bent 90 degrees approximately 3 feet from the base. In addition, 5 windows on the southeast side of the hospital were broken. The tornado continued along 1st street where various pieces of small to medium debris and limbs were tossed about. A building near Pine Street sustained minor damage to the shingles on its roof. The tornado crossed directly over the Macon-Bibb Emergency Operations Center where several Emergency Management Agency vehicles had their windows blown out. A weather station on the roof of the building recorded a 66 mph wind gust before the anemometer broke. Additional windows in buildings along 1st Street were blown out around the Poplar Street intersection along with the directional street sign. Large, heavy tables were lifted and tossed near this intersection. Trees were blown down around the intersections with Mulberry Street and Walnut Street. A 5th story window was blown out in a building along Mulberry St. The tornado lifted as it crossed Riverside Drive and approached the Ocmulgee River. No injuries were reported. [03/03/19: Tornado #3, County #1/1, EF0, Bibb, 2019:008].

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:11 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:28 UTC and running to 23:28 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

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.