Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2019

EF1 tornado, Bethany to West Bainbridge, Georgia, March 3, 2019

Name: EF1 tornado, Bethany to West Bainbridge, Georgia, March 3, 2019
Start: 2019-03-04T00:18:00.000Z
End: 2019-03-04T00:24:00.000Z
Location: Bethany to West Bainbridge, Georgia

From Bethany to West Bainbridge, this EF1 tornado ran 4.5 miles across Decatur County on March 3, 2019, touching down at 7:18 PM EST and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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: EF1
Date: March 3, 2019
Touchdown: 7:18 PM EST (00:18 UTC)
Lifted: 7:24 PM EST (00:24 UTC)
On the ground: 6 minutes
Path length: 4.5 miles (7.3 km)
Path width: 150 yards (137 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $20,000
County: Decatur County
Touchdown point: 30.877, -84.686
Lift-off point: 30.886, -84.611
Record number: 1903031818-01

The damage survey

31 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 mph.

several snapped pines shed roof blown off
large wooden shed destroyed. resident is in intensive care. shed was anchored with hurricane straps.
Center line irrigation down 250 yds due south of point.
AC Unit flipped, homeowner turned upright

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

This event featured all modes of severe weather in our forecast area, including 13 tornadoes, numerous reports of straight-line wind damage, and even large hail. The 13 tornadoes consisted of 1 EF3, 2 EF2s, 6 EF1s, and 4 EF0s. This is a very high number of tornadoes for our forecast area for a single event. This compares with 7 tornadoes in the 1/22/17 event, 8 tornadoes in the 1/2/17 event, and 10 tornadoes in the 3/1/07 event. This may have been the most tornadoes for a single event in our area since the Hurricane Ivan tornadoes back in 2004. The synoptic pattern was characterized by a fast-moving upper trough through relatively zonal flow. The forecast area was under the favorable right entrance region of the upper jet with lots of upper level divergence. An 850 mb jet near or in excess of 50 knots was also present, which is another typical ingredient for severe weather in this part of the country in the cool season. Cool season levels of shear (0-1 km shear > 30 knots and 0-6 km shear > 50 knots) were overlaid with moderate levels of instability (SBCAPE 1500 j/kg), as opposed to more typical winter SBCAPE < 500 j/kg. Without this strong low-level jet, the low-level shear values would have been weaker and we would have probably seen less tornadoes.

An EF1 tornado with maximum winds of 90 mph initially touched down southwest of Bainbridge along GA-253, or Spring Creek Road. Damage in the area was mainly limited to large pines snapped. A tree fell on a home along the road. The tornado lifted before reaching the Flint River with straight-line wind damage observed south of Bainbridge. Damage cost was estimated.

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

The forecast that day

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 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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Tallahassee, FL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Mar 3, 6:58 PM EST, 20 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 3, 6:58 PM EST, 20 minutes before

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Tallahassee FL
658 PM EST Sun Mar 3 2019

.AVIATION...
[Through 00Z Tuesday]

A squall line bringing multiple confirmed tornadoes and wind gusts
over 50 knots continues to march across the region this evening.
In the wake of the squall line, MVFR ceilings will overspread the
region, lowering to IFR through the night. It won't be until early
tomorrow afternoon that restrictions clear and all sites return to
VFR.

&&

.PREV DISCUSSION [333 PM EST]...

.NEAR TERM [Through Tonight]...

At 19Z, regional radar imagery shows a quasi- linear convective
system (QLCS) stretching southwestward from east- central AL down
to southwest AL and along the MS and southeast LA coastline. Ahead
of this line, several discrete supercells have formed in
southeast AL and southwest GA. Our 18Z TAE sounding showed SBCAPE
of 1600 J/kg, with over 25 kts of 0-1 km shear and over 35 kts 0-6
km shear. In this environment, the main threat for the afternoon
and evening will be tornadoes in the supercells ahead of the QLCS
as well as the potential for tornadoes embedded in the QLCS when
it pushes eastward into the area tonight. The supercells ahead of
the line will also be capable of producing hail and thunderstorms
along the line will be capable of producing damaging wind gusts in
excess of 58 mph. The SPC has highlighted the vast majority of
the tri-state area in enhanced and slight risks for severe
thunderstorms. There is a tornado watch in effect for southeast AL
along with southwest and south-central GA and most of the FL
Panhandle through 8 PM this evening.

.SHORT TERM [Monday Through Tuesday Night]...

The cold front will exit the forecast area Monday morning with
drier and much cooler air moving in behind it. The main focus for
this period continues to be the potential freeze Tuesday night. A
light freeze is forecast across most inland counties with
durations of perhaps 2-3 hours north of U.S. Route 84. There
hasn't been a freeze since January 31. Any plants or crops that
got an early start due to the very warm February will be
susceptible to damage from this freeze.

.LONG TERM [Wednesday Through Sunday]...

The chilly air mass will remain in place through Thursday with
another light freeze possible that morning. The next frontal
system will bring increasing rain chances to the forecast from
Friday night through the weekend.

.MARINE...

Onshore winds will increase to cautionary levels ahead of a cold
front and then shift to offshore with frontal passage later
tonight into Monday morning. Winds will diminish somewhat Monday
night before increasing to advisory levels behind another cold
front Tuesday night. These offshore winds will then drop below
headline criteria by Wednesday afternoon before shifting to the
east for Thursday. Onshore winds return Friday.

.FIRE WEATHER...

Red flag conditions are not expected for the next several days.

.HYDROLOGY...

Areas north of U.S. 84 remain in a slight risk for excessive
rainfall. However, this would be isolated in areas that get good
rain rates in any training thunderstorms. Antecedent dry conditions
should keep the rivers in check for the most part. The Kinchafoonee
Creek and Apalachicola River are the only ones forecast to reach
flood stage at this time.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

Spotter activation is not requested. However, spotters are always
encouraged to safely report significant weather conditions when they
occur by calling the office or tweeting us @NWSTallahassee.

&&

.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...

Tallahassee   50  64  43  60  33 /  80  20  20  20   0
Panama City   48  61  43  56  36 /  80  20  20  10   0
Dothan        41  56  37  53  29 /  90  10  10   0   0
Albany        44  59  39  55  30 / 100  10  10   0   0
Valdosta      52  63  43  58  32 /  90  20  10  20   0
Cross City    62  70  46  62  34 /  60  30  10  20   0
Apalachicola  53  64  46  59  37 /  80  20  20  20   0

&&

.TAE WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
FL...High Rip Current Risk until 1 AM EST /midnight CST/ Monday for
     Coastal Bay-Coastal Franklin-Coastal Gulf-South Walton.

GA...None.
AL...None.
GM...None.
&&

NEAR TERM...Nguyen
SHORT TERM...Wool
LONG TERM...Wool
AVIATION...Harrigan
MARINE...Wool
FIRE WEATHER...Harrigan
HYDROLOGY...Wool

In the hours before

Local storm report, Mar 3, 5:29 PM EST, 1 hour 49 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TALLAHASSEE FL
529 PM EST SUN MAR 3 2019

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0434 PM     HAIL             2 NW ALAPAHA            31.40N 83.24W
03/03/2019  E1.00 INCH       BERRIEN            GA   911 CALL CENTER

            TREE DOWN BLOCKING 129 N AND QUARTER SIZE
            HAIL.

&&

DH

Local storm report, Mar 3, 5:31 PM EST, 1 hour 47 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TALLAHASSEE FL
531 PM EST SUN MAR 3 2019

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0404 PM     HAIL             3 SSW ABBA              31.72N 83.38W
03/03/2019  E1.75 INCH       IRWIN              GA   PUBLIC

            GOLF BALL SIZED HAIL REPORTED.

&&

EB

Local storm report, Mar 3, 5:33 PM EST, 1 hour 45 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TALLAHASSEE FL
533 PM EST SUN MAR 3 2019

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0432 PM     TSTM WND DMG     ENIGMA                  31.41N 83.33W
03/03/2019                   BERRIEN            GA   911 CALL CENTER

            POWER POLES SNAPPED AND TRACTOR TRAILER
            TIPPED OVER IN MEDIAN OF HIGHWAY 82 NEAR
            ENIGMA. QUARTER SIZE HAIL REPORTED AS WELL.

&&

DH

Local storm report, Mar 3, 6:08 PM EST, 1 hour 10 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TALLAHASSEE FL
608 PM EST SUN MAR 3 2019

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0543 PM     TSTM WND DMG     1 ENE PLEASANT RIDGE    30.70N 86.15W
03/03/2019                   WALTON             FL   BROADCAST MEDIA

            BOB SIKES ROAD NEAR HIGHWAY 331 CLOSED WITH
            TREES OVER THE ROAD. DEBRIS NEAR WALMART.

&&

DH

Local storm report, Mar 3, 6:12 PM EST, 1 hour 6 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TALLAHASSEE FL
612 PM EST SUN MAR 3 2019

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0540 PM     TSTM WND DMG     1 NNE PLEASANT RIDGE    30.71N 86.16W
03/03/2019                   WALTON             FL   EMERGENCY MNGR

            ALL I-10 EASTBOUND LANES CLOSED NEAR MM 83
            DUE TO DOWNED TREES.

&&

DH

Local storm report, Mar 3, 6:16 PM EST, 1 hour 2 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TALLAHASSEE FL
616 PM EST SUN MAR 3 2019

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0613 PM     TSTM WND DMG     1 SE NEWTON             31.32N 85.59W
03/03/2019                   DALE               AL   911 CALL CENTER

            POWER POLE DOWN ON HARTFORD STREET IN DALE
            COUNTY.

&&

EB

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.

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 00:00Z

0.3 hours before the tornado, 63 km from the path. March 4, 2019.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 231 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -3 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 1226 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 904 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 290 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 403 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.4
Supercell composite: 6.6
0-3 km lapse rate: 6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Bainbridge/Decatur County Indus (BGE), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:16 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2019 tornado in Georgia Every tornado in Georgia since 1950 Warnings in force in Georgia now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 3, 2019

44 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 3	12:55 PM CST	EF1	Washington, AL	0.2	300			$10,000
March 3	1:19 PM CST	EF0	Autauga, AL	0.6	70
March 3	1:37 PM CST	EF1	Washington, AL	2.6	100			$50,000
March 3	2:00 PM CST	EF4	Beauregard tornado, AL	68.0	1,600	23	90	$1.8 million
March 3	3:15 PM EST	EF2	Peach, GA	6.7	420		1	$200,000
March 3	2:27 PM CST	EF2	Macon, AL	29.1	1,300		1
March 3	2:34 PM CST	EF1	Butler, AL	0.3	50			$15,000
March 3	3:36 PM EST	EF0	Bibb, GA	1.1	150			$100,000
March 3	2:38 PM CST	EF1	Crenshaw, AL	2.6	50			$15,000
March 3	3:42 PM EST	EF1	Twiggs, GA	1.1	300			$50,000
March 3	4:05 PM EST	EF0	Telfair, GA	4.0	150			$50,000
March 3	4:09 PM EST	EF0	Telfair, GA	0.4	100			$30,000
March 3	3:15 PM CST	EF0	Bullock, AL	0.4	50
March 3	4:18 PM EST	EF1	Wilkinson, GA	3.1	630			$45,000
March 3	4:18 PM EST	EF0	Taylor, GA	6.6	630			$25,000
March 3	4:19 PM EST	EF1	Harris, GA	7.4	900			$150,000
March 3	4:24 PM EST	EF1	Washington, GA	0.6	200			$50,000
March 3	4:30 PM EST	EF0	Jeff Davis, GA	0.0	25
March 3	4:36 PM EST	EF1	Washington, GA	1.4	290			$35,000
March 3	4:43 PM EST	EF0	Peach, GA	6.4	300			$95,000
March 3	3:45 PM CST	EF2	Barbour, AL	6.7	700
March 3	4:55 PM EST	EF1	Washington, GA	0.2	85			$50,000
March 3	3:58 PM CST	EF2	Quitman, AL to GA	30.9	860			$415,000
March 3	5:22 PM EST	EF0	Wayne, GA	0.3	50
March 3	4:28 PM CST	EF0	Walton, FL	11.9	400
March 3	4:39 PM CST	EF0	Clay, AL to GA	10.8	75			$10,000
March 3	5:44 PM EST	EF2	Columbia, GA	1.5	100
March 3	4:51 PM CST	EF1	Geneva, AL	5.1	300			$100,000
March 3	5:53 PM EST	EF2	Edgefield, SC	5.0	200		7
March 3	6:03 PM EST	EF0	Orangeburg, SC	0.2	25
March 3	6:30 PM EST	EF1	Aiken, SC	0.4	150			$2,000
March 3	5:33 PM CST	EF1	Washington, FL	5.3	300			$105,000
March 3	6:53 PM EST	EF1	Lexington, SC	10.8	100
March 3	6:58 PM EST	EF1	Liberty, GA	7.8	350
March 3	7:02 PM EST	EF1	Miller, GA	4.1	150		1	$200,000
March 3	7:13 PM EST	EF1	Lexington, SC	1.9	50
March 3	7:13 PM EST	EF1	Richland, SC	1.5	150
March 3	7:33 PM EST	EF1	Richland, SC	0.6	200
March 3	7:41 PM EST	EF1	Gadsden, FL	2.1	275			$50,000
March 3	7:45 PM EST	EF1	Tift, GA	0.7	180			$50,000
March 3	7:54 PM EST	EF2	Grady, GA	2.7	800		2	$1.0 million
March 3	8:06 PM EST	EF0	Wakulla, FL	18.4	300			$5,000
March 3	8:18 PM EST	EF3	Leon, FL	8.8	700			$500,000
March 3	8:42 PM EST	EF0	Wakulla, FL	0.7	50

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.