EF2 tornado, Damascus, Georgia, February 15, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

February 15, 2021

Touchdown

4:38 PM EST (21:38 UTC)

Lifted

4:48 PM EST (21:48 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.9 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

5

Property damage

$500,000

County

Early County

Touchdown point

31.300, -84.700

Lift-off point

31.281, -84.721

Record number

2102151538-01

43 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 mph.

• Concrete block home, with no visible rebar and minimal attachment to foundation. Roof failure and walls collapsed.
• Home was not secured to concrete block pier foundation. Slid off foundation and collapsed.
• Large oak tree pulled from ground and lofted into front yard of home.
• Aluminum support driven into tree.

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

A strong cold front moved through the area during the afternoon hours of Feb 15th. The airmass ahead of the front was relatively unstable, and shear was very strong. The result was a round of strong to severe storms across the tri-state area with damaging winds and a few tornadoes, including a strong EF2 tornado in Early county, GA. A few days later, a round of heavy rainfall led to minor flooding in Tift County.

A tornado touched down just west of Highway 45 south of Damascus in Early County, Georgia. Along Highway 45 the tornado snapped a few trees and damaged the roofs of a couple of houses. The tornado crossed the highway moving northeast and reached peak intensity as it hit homes along Killebrew Rd. Two homes and a detached garage along Killebrew Rd were destroyed down to their foundations, which were not anchored. One home was constructed of concrete block which collapsed. The other home was constructed of wood with a concrete block foundation. The 5 injuries noted came from these two homes. A truck was tossed from the detached garage and onto the homes. Several trees were uprooted and snapped, with other cars sustaining heavy damage. A large tree was uprooted behind the homes and thrown about 100 yards into the front yard. Two instances were noted of small metal pole projectiles lodged into trees. Another house nearby sustained heavy damage to the roof and had portions of the exterior walls fail. A propane gas tank was dislodged and moved at this location as well. Powerlines were knocked down and most trees were snapped or uprooted along this section of the path. After the tornado crossed Killebrew Rd, it headed northeast and appeared to weaken. Trees snapped and uprooted were observed along the rest of the track along Po Boy Lane, Pullen Rd, GA Highway 200, Big Pond Rd, County Rd 3, Billy Newberry Rd, County Rd 119, Patmos Milford Hwy, and Julia Jones Rd. Damage sustained in these areas were mostly tree damage along with a couple instances of minor roof damage. The tornado lifted in Baker County after crossing Julia Jones Rd. The tornado was rated as a high end EF2 with max estimated winds around 130 mph.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:30 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:49 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:12 UTC and running to 22:02 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 Ft Rucker radar (KEOX), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:35 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

5 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.