EF1 tornado, Ladds to Rydal, Georgia, April 12, 2020

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 12, 2020

Touchdown

1:06 AM EDT (05:06 UTC)

Lifted

1:21 AM EDT (05:21 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

12.8 miles (20.5 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

2

Property damage

$100,000

County

Bartow County

Touchdown point

34.149, -84.829

Lift-off point

34.286, -84.678

Record number

2004122306-01

2 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.

• per wildlife managment, 60-70 trees downed in the pine log wildlife area

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

A powerful Spring storm system resulted in a Severe Weather / Tornado outbreak across much of the Southeast region, including north and central Georgia, beginning on Easter Sunday (April 12th) and lingering into the morning hours of April 13th. From the Storm Prediction Center (Day 1) convective outlook, just about the entire area was under an ENHANCED risk for severe weather with a MODERATE risk extending from the ArkLaMiss into western Georgia.||In addition, enhanced rainfall occurred over far north Georgia and in portions of central Georgia, with rainfall amounts ranging from 3 to 8 inches through the event. Significant flooding was in portions of the area with numerous reports of washouts and several reports of rescues.

A National Weather Service survey found that an EF1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 100 mph and a maximum path width of 250 yards touched down in Bartow County on the southwest side of Cartersville along West Avenue where a fence was blown down and roofing material was peeled off of a small business. The tornado moved northeast along West Avenue with sporadic damage to trees. A very large oak tree was blown down onto a home around Herring Street and Fite Street killing a 34 year old man asleep in a bedroom hit by the tree. The tornado continued moving to the northeast blowing down trees along Bartow Street and West Cherokee Avenue in addition to other areas across downtown Cartersville. The tornado crossed I-75 and Highway 294/20 spur blowing down a few trees. The tornado intensified as it crossed Highway 20 east of I75. Numerous trees were blown down near the end of Black Road Northeast with minor roof damage to a home. Along Bells Ferry Road numerous large trees were snapped and blown down as the tornado reached maximum intensity in this |area. The storm crossed Stamp Creek Road blowing down trees and power lines before entering the Pine Log Wildlife Management Area blowing down 60-70 more trees before lifting. [04/12/20: Tornado #7, County #1/1, EF-1, Bartow, 2020:013].

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:02 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:45 UTC and running to 06:48 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:58 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.

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:05 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 2020 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

72 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 73 of them

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.