EF1 tornado, Carey to Greshamville, 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

6:24 AM EDT (10:24 UTC)

Lifted

6:32 AM EDT (10:32 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

5.5 miles (8.9 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Greene County

Touchdown point

33.582, -83.255

Lift-off point

33.654, -83.299

Record number

2108170424-01

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 determined that an EF1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 90 mph and a maximum path width of 100 yards touched down west of Greensboro along Northwoods Drive, just north of Highway 278. The tornado traveled |north northwest along the eastern shore of Lake Oconee where several homes had trees snapped and uprooted around them. One home had several windows blown in. Along Arrowhead Road and Quail Trails numerous trees were snapped and uprooted and several boathouses were destroyed along with several outbuildings and sheds. Many homes suffered minor damage and a few had more significant damage where trees fell onto the homes. The tornado continued moving to the north northwest along the lake in mainly uninhabited areas until it crossed Greenbriar Drive where many large limbs and branches were blown down. The tornado dissipated after it crossed South M Copeland Road in a wooded area to the west of the road. [8/17/21: Tornado #4, County #1/1, EF-1, Greene, 2021:018].

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:18 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:38 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:48 UTC and running to 14:14 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 05:40 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 Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:24 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.