EF1 tornado, Odum to Madray Spgs, Georgia, April 13, 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 13, 2020

Touchdown

7:25 AM EDT (11:25 UTC)

Lifted

7:30 AM EDT (11:30 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

4.8 miles (7.6 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

8

County

Wayne County

Touchdown point

31.670, -82.030

Lift-off point

31.680, -81.950

Record number

2004130525-01

29 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CHS and NWS JAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Separated garage moved off foundation.
• believe at right edge of tornado with trees pointing into track
• believe this is rare downflank part of storm.
• Hardwoods and pines snapped

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

A pre-frontal squall line with embedded supercells will moved across interior southeast Georgia during the early morning hours and reached the Suwannee Valley just before daybreak. Very strong shear and instability phased across SE GA during the morning hours where there were supercells, one that produced two tornado touchdowns. The pre-frontal line slowed down and gradually weakened as it moved into NE Florida into the afternoon, but severe storms continued to be possible due to weakening dynamics and remaining surface based instability.

A high end EF1 tornado with peak winds near 110 mph touched down in Odum and tracked ENE for about 4.5 miles before lifting up again. There were 8 reported injuries. A manufactured home was lifted off of the ground and over power lines near Hyma Poppell Loop near Poppel Farms. Roof and window damage occurred to some brick and mortar homes. A home on a cinder block foundation was spun off of its base. Widespread tree and power line damage occurred near Odum including along Walter Griffis Road, Hires Avenue, Hyma Poppell Loop and Tank Road.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:14 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:49 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:22 UTC and running to 13:38 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, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 05:50 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.

Jesup (JES), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Moody AFB radar (KVAX), 130 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:26 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

67 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 68 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.