EF0 tornado, Flowery Branch, Georgia, December 29, 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 29, 2021

Touchdown

12:03 AM EST (05:03 UTC)

Lifted

12:07 AM EST (05:07 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Hall County

Touchdown point

34.176, -83.981

Lift-off point

34.169, -83.947

Record number

2112292303-01

7 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 75 mph.

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

Within an unseasonably warm and moist low-level environment, a strong southwest upper level flow with an intense mid-level shortwave ejecting across the Central Plains/Midwest regions resulted in a line of strong to severe thunderstorms (along with heavy rain) across north Georgia during the evening and overnight hours of 29-30 December 2021. The remnant boundary/front settled over central Georgia during the afternoon of 30 December 2021 which resulted in redevelopment of scattered strong to severe thunderstorms. Several tornadoes, along with areas of wind damage and large hail occurred all across north and central Georgia from these events. Rainfall amounts of 3 to 6 inches occurred over the area, resulting in isolated flash flooding in the greater Atlanta metro area.

A brief, weak tornado spun up nearly immediately behind a line of|strong showers and thunderstorms as is tracked across southern|Hall County. Based on radar and NWS ground surveys, the narrow|tornado appeared to touch down between Sweetwater Point and Club|View Court, just south of Gaines Ferry Road. In this area,|several trees were snapped or uprooted with one falling onto a 2-|car garage. Additional trees were seen snapped or uprooted in a|fairly consistent path from Secret Cove Court to Athletic Club|Drive. The damage appeared to get more sporadic but additional|tree damage was seen along the storm's path until around|Laurelwood Trail and Sweetgum Trail which is just north of Gaines|Ferry Road. This tornado took a east-southeast track behind the|main leading line of storms. [12/30/21: Tornado #2, County #1/1, EF-0, Hall, 2021:24].

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:22 UTC and running to 10:00 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 00:56 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 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 Atlanta radar (KFFC), 106 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:03 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

7 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.