Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2021
EF1 tornado, Doverel, Georgia, April 24, 2021
This EF1 tornado ran 0.9 miles across Terrell County on April 24, 2021, touching down at 9:30 AM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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
- April 24, 2021
- Touchdown
- 9:30 AM EDT (13:30 UTC)
- Lifted
- 9:31 AM EDT (13:31 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.9 miles (1.5 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Terrell County
- Touchdown point
- 31.706, -84.520
- Lift-off point
- 31.701, -84.506
- Record number
- 2104240730-01
The damage survey
8 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 94 mph.
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
Multiple rounds of strong to severe storms affected the region on April 24th. Tornadoes, large hail (some to 2 inches in diameter), and widespread damaging winds occurred. The multiple rounds also caused rainfall amounts in excess of 6 inches in some locations across the tri-state region, resulting in flash flooding.
This tornado touched down on Doverel Highway and snapped a few trees. It then moved over an open field before doing extensive tree damage to a property on Herod Dover Road. Several large trees were snapped or uprooted on the property and fell in many different directions. The tornado damaged a few more trees a short distance down the road from this property before lifting. Damage was consistent with an EF1 rating.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 10:22 UTC and running to 19:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05:45 UTC | 03:34 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | TAE |
| 10:22 UTC | 19:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | TAE |
| 12:00 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Wind Advisory | TAE |
| 12:40 UTC | 13:48 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TAE |
| 13:28 UTC | 13:46 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TAE |
| 20:00 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | TAE |
| 22:37 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | TAE |
| 23:02 UTC | 23:14 UTC | Tornado Warning | TAE |
| 23:05 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TAE |
| 23:38 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TAE |
| 00:01 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TAE |
| 00:30 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TAE |
| 00:37 UTC | 01:16 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TAE |
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 forecast that day
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 12:56 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 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), 12:00Z
1.5 hours before the tornado, 146 km from the path. April 24, 2021.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 175 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -61 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 124 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 544 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 64 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 447 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 570 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 0.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.5 K/km
Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 00:00Z
10.5 hours after it, 146 km from the path. April 25, 2021.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2012 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -1 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2789 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 697 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 61 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 39 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 293 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 374 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 4.7
- Supercell composite
- 19.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
The radar
The Ft Rucker radar (KEOX), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:29 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 S Fort Gaines | Clay, GA | TREES WITH POWER LINES ON 39 N, 39 S, AND 37E IN CLAY COUNTY. |
| 13:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Fort Gaines | Clay, GA | TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN. |
| 13:29 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Blakely | Early, GA | MULTIPLE TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN AROUND 26256 HWY 39. |
| 13:30 UTC | TORNADO | Doverel | Terrell, GA | EF1 TORNADO CONFIRMED BY STORM SURVEY. |
| 13:42 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 1 N Newton | Baker, GA | |
| 13:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Se Stocks | Lee, GA | STOCKS DAIRY IS CLOSED DUE TO STORM DAMAGE. TREES DOWN, ROOFS BLOWN OFF. |
| 13:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Doverel | Terrell, GA | LINE OF TWISTED AND BROKEN TREES RUNNING FOR ABOUT 1/2 MILE. HOUSE HAD A LARGE TREE DROPPED THROUGH MIDDLE. NO INJURIES. |
| 14:19 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Albany | Dougherty, GA | IN DOUGHERTY COUNTY, TREES DOWN OFF GILLIONVILLE NEAR ASU WEST CAMPUS. ALSO REPORT OF DEBRIS ALONG SYLVESTER ROAD PAST MOCK ROAD IN DOUGHERTY COUNTY. |
| 16:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nw Blakely | Early, GA | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN ALONG GA HIGHWAY 39. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 24, 2021
5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.