EF1 tornado, Parkersburg to Ft Screven, Georgia, May 4, 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

May 4, 2019

Touchdown

4:53 PM EDT (20:53 UTC)

Lifted

4:57 PM EDT (20:57 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.2 miles (3.5 km)

Path width

170 yards (155 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

County

Chatham County

Touchdown point

32.020, -81.018

Lift-off point

32.015, -80.981

Record number

1905041453-01

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CHS, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 104 mph.

• hardwood branches snapped off near walgreens
• split hardwood trunk and small limbs
• car shelter gone and sign blown out
• metal siding from car port

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

Scattered to numerous thunderstorms developed in the early afternoon hours within a warm and unstable airmass. A few of these thunderstorms became strong enough to produce damaging wind gusts. One storm even produced a brief tornado after interacting with a mesoscale boundary.

A National Weather Service storm survey team confirmed an EF-1 tornado in Chatham County. The tornado began over the Wilmington River, just west of the Savannah Yacht Club on Whitemarsh Island. It developed rapidly as it hit the Savannah Yacht Club. At the time the tornado struck, a boat was being lifted by a crane at the dock. This boat was thrown from the crane back into the water. The boat crane was also pushed by the winds of the tornado off its track, which caused it to crash into a small building near the crane. This small building sustained significant roof damage. One person was reportedly injured inside the building, but the extent of their injuries was unknown. The tornado continued moving east-southeast , snapping and uprooting several trees in a residential area near the end of Bradley Creek Drive. One home in that area also had minor roof damage due to missing shingles. From this point, the tornado strengthened as it moved southeast over Bradley Creek and across portions of Turners Rock Road. This was the region where the most significant damage was found, with at least two dozen large hard and softwood trees either snapped or uprooted. Wind speeds in this area were estimated to be between 100 and 105 mph. The tornado then weakened as it moved on a more easterly path across Turner Creek and onto the western edge of Wilmington Island, just south of Johnny Mercer Boulevard. The tornado broke some tree limbs and branches around Walgreens, then damaged a sign near the Autoplex as it crossed Johnny Mercer Boulevard. Once across Johnny Mercer Boulevard, the weakening tornado skipped over Molly McGuire's restaurant, finally ending in the empty lot just east of the Goodwill store. The roof on the Goodwill store sustained minor damage.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS CHS issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:51 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:13 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:35 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.

Hunter (Aaf) (SVN), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 71 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:52 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

7 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.