EF0 tornado, Irwinton to Nickelsville, Georgia, December 11, 2021

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

December 11, 2021

Touchdown

5:16 PM EST (22:16 UTC)

Lifted

5:23 PM EST (22:23 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

3.8 miles (6.1 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Wilkinson County

Touchdown point

32.730, -83.210

Lift-off point

32.728, -83.141

Record number

2112111616-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 73 mph.

• Ground survey by EM in coordination with NWS. Rural area with very little road coverage.
• Well-defined TDS from KJGX seen just north of this location (no access by car)
• Likely end point (if not just west of this point). Radar shows edge of wind field/TDS (lifting).

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

An unseasonably warm airmass ahead of a cold front sparked scattered showers and thunderstorms across north and central Georgia during the day, 11 December 2021. A few of these storms became strong to severe with localized wind damage and even a brief, weak tornado that touched down in middle Georgia (Wilkinson County).

A brief tornado touched down over south-central Wilkinson County|within a small area of pre-frontal showers and storms that|produced a very brief but discrete mini-supercell. Based on radar|(cell was less than 10 miles from KJGX) and confirmed ground|reports of trees down, the tornado tracked from roughly between|Hwy 96 and JW Bridges Road and US Hwy 441 just north of Maiden|Creek. A well-defined TDS was noted at around 2219Z (5:19 PM EST)|and this lined up well with trees that were seen down just west of|this location, along Pleasant Plains Church Road. The eastward-|moving tornado lifted past US 441 as no additional damage was |noted east of this point. [12/11/21: Tornado #1, County #1/1, EF-0, Wilkinson, 2021:22].

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.

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:38 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), 18 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:19 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

37 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.