EF1 tornado, Temple to Villa Rica, Georgia, December 31, 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

December 31, 2021

Touchdown

5:32 PM EST (22:32 UTC)

Lifted

5:45 PM EST (22:45 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

2.8 miles (4.4 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Carroll County

Touchdown point

33.737, -85.000

Lift-off point

33.763, -84.963

Record number

2112311632-01

13 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 93 mph.

• Numerous trees snapped more than 1/2way down and significant damage to carport/barn (due to trees).
• Carport detached from main home.

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

Low-level shear with moderate instability resulted in a rare Low-Precipitation (LP) supercell event across portions of central Georgia during the evening of 31 December 2021. A low to mid-level cap was in place, only allowing for the development of very shallow cells, however enough low-level shear along an old boundary was in place for two separate tornadoes to touch down in Newton and Carroll counties. Radar returns showed less than 20dbz during the event given lack of growth of the supercell in combination with an overshooting radar beam.

A tornado from a rare LP supercell touched down near US-|78 between Temple and Villa Rica in far northern Carroll County|during the late afternoon/early evening hours of New Year's Eve.|Initially, several trees were noted snapped or uprooted between|Wilton Smith Road to Old Villa Rica Road. As the tornado moved|northeast, it appeared to strengthen as more numerous trees were|seen either uprooted or snapped along Long Branch Road and across|Cown Road. The number of large pines uprooted along Long Branch|Road supports an EF-1 rating here with max winds around 90 mph.|On the east side of Long Branch Road and just before Cown Road, a|barn was ripped apart along with a carport seen detached from a|well-built manufactured home that remained intact. This along|with the surrounding tree damage supported 95 mph max winds|(still an EF-1 rating). As the tornado crossed Cown Road and then|Astin Creek Road, additional large pines were snapped or|uprooted. A home sustained roof damage due to a falling tree and|a medium-sized shed was rolled up on the side of the house about|20 yards from its original location. A few more trees were seen|snapped or uprooted along N Van Wert Road, just south of Wert|Road where the tornado appeared to weaken and eventually lift|just past this location as no notable damage was reported or|seen. [12/31/21: Tornado #1, County #1/1, EF-1, Carroll, 2021:27].

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:34 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.

Dallas (PUJ), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:32 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

2 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.