EF1 tornado, Carlan to Pinefield Crossroads, Georgia, August 17, 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 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

August 17, 2021

Touchdown

10:24 AM EDT (14:24 UTC)

Lifted

10:31 AM EDT (14:31 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.7 miles (9.2 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Banks County

Touchdown point

34.333, -83.416

Lift-off point

34.403, -83.470

Record number

2108170824-01

The remains of Tropical Storm Fred moved across central and north Georgia as a tropical depression during the overnight hours through the morning producing isolated reports of damaging winds in convective bands and several tornadoes. No reports of wind damage were received outside of the stronger convective bands. Rainfall amounts exceeded 4 inches in portions of northeast Georgia, with amounts of 6 to 8 inches observed in the northeast Georgia mountains.

A National Weather Service survey found that an EF1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 90 mph and a maximum path width of 100 yards touched down in Banks County along Bennett Road west of Highway 63. The tornado uprooted and snapped trees as it moved northwest along Bennett Road. One home was almost completely destroyed by a falling oak tree. The tornado continued to the Northwest across a landfill before crossing Highway 51 around Damascus Road where numerous trees were snapped or uprooted. Continuing to the Northwest, the tornado crossed Payne Road snapping and uprooting dozens of trees and destroying a chicken house on the north|side of Payne Road. A small trailer was rolled and thrown 30 yards. The tornado was at its strongest along Payne Road before beginning to weaken as it continued moving to the northwest. A tree was blown down into a home along Hawkins Road right before the tornado lifted as it approached Pace and Caudell Roads. [8/17/21: Tornado #7, County #1/1, EF-1, Banks, 2021:021].

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

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 07:48 UTC and running to 15:45 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 12:45 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.

Cornelia (AJR), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Greer radar (KGSP), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:23 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

21 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.