EF2 tornado, Mora to Douglas Muni Arpt, Georgia, April 24, 2021

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

April 24, 2021

Touchdown

9:03 PM EDT (01:03 UTC)

Lifted

9:18 PM EDT (01:18 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

8.2 miles (13.1 km)

Path width

360 yards (329 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Coffee County

Touchdown point

31.452, -83.004

Lift-off point

31.437, -82.866

Record number

2104241903-01

23 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 121 mph.

• Approx 30% of roof damaged
• Several pine snapped at trunk.
• Area Inaccessible, point is based on KVAX SRV, CC Debris Ball and Meso track. Added for completeness of track. Most likely EF0
• Area Inaccessible, point is based on KVAX SRV, CC Debris Ball and Meso track. Added for completeness of track. Most likely EF0, possible EF1 based on damage in adjoining neighborhood.

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

A potent storm system developing over the lower MS River Valley tracked eastward across the Gulf Coast States and brought a couple rounds of severe storms to the local area. The first wave of strong to severe storms approached SE GA midday with strong shear and high low level helicity favoring all severe weather hazards including damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes. This initial band of convection stalled just north of the I-10 corridor and lingered into the afternoon as the first mid level trough lifted NE of the region. This lingering convergent line (outflow boundary) was a focus for continued rounds of severe storms and locally heavy rainfall under strengthening upper level divergence and robust 850 mb winds of 40-50 kts as the parent mid/upper level troughs approached from the west into the evening. The next wave of severe storms developed in the late afternoon and early evening along both the lingering trough/outflow axis across NE FL was well as upstream across south GA as the next strong upper level trough approached, which another round of severe hazards including tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail across SE GA and northeast Florida into the evening. Storms generally weakened a few hours after midnight as stronger dynamics lifted NE of the region, but a few stronger storms during the early morning hours of the 25th produced a brief tornado in Flagler county and hail across our southern tier counties.

A supercell thunderstorm crossed the southern tier of Coffee county and produced a tornado that impacted SW Douglas. Initial debris included large snapped trees and begin near Hebron Church, south of GA Highway 158 in Willacoochee, GA. The most extensive damage occurred in Baymeadows Estates, a community where numerous homes suffered wind and tree damage consistent with low-end EF2 tornado damage. The tornado maintained an ESE heading and impacted the Bear Creek mobile home community where numerous pine trees were snapped. The damage path consisted of snapped trees eastward and ended near Carver Baptist Church. Peak winds were estimated at 116 mph.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:51 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:48 UTC and running to 04:01 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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 Moody AFB radar (KVAX), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:03 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 2021 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.