Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2021

EF0 tornado, Crawford County, Georgia, January 1, 2021

This EF0 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Crawford County on January 1, 2021, touching down at 2:18 PM EST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
January 1, 2021
Touchdown
2:18 PM EST (19:18 UTC)
Lifted
2:20 PM EST (19:20 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.8 miles (1.4 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$25,000
County
Crawford County
Touchdown point
32.774, -84.093
Lift-off point
32.782, -84.082
Record number
2101011318-01

The damage survey

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 80 mph.

  • Trees snapped along West Hopewell Road just before Taylor Road.
  • Multiple trees down along with some structural damage (outhouses/sheds) along Treadwell Road before Rogers Church Road. EMA confirmed.

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

The warnings

17 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:01 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:01 UTC19:30 UTCTornado WarningFFC
20:29 UTC22:55 UTCTornado WatchFFC

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 forecast that day

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 16:27 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 air that afternoon

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.

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 12:00Z

7.3 hours before the tornado, 76 km from the path. January 1, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 12:00Z on 2021-01-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 7 joules per kilogram, CIN -202, lifted condensation level 573 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 12:00Z on 2021-01-01The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 389 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
7 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-202 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
573 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
389 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
491 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 00:00Z

4.7 hours after it, 76 km from the path. January 2, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 00:00Z on 2021-01-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 4 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 616 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 00:00Z on 2021-01-02The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 147 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
4 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
16 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
616 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
147 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
142 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:16 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:01 UTCTORNADO5 Wsw Fickling MillTaylor, GASEVERAL TREES SNAPPED OR UPROOTED NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF HWY 19 AND JACK PEED ROAD NORTH OF BUTLER. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
19:02 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Wsw Fickling MillTaylor, GAEMA REPORTED MULTIPLE TREES DOWN ALONG LT PEED ROAD OFF OF US HWY 19 NORTH OF BUTLER. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. POSSIBLE TORNADO.
19:05 UTCTORNADO3 W Fickling MillTaylor, GASEVERAL ADDITIONAL TREES SNAPPED OR UPROOTED AND SOME MINOR ROOF DAMAGE SEEN TO A HOME NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF LT PEED ROAD AND 208/E OLD WIRE ROAD. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
19:18 UTCTORNADO4 E SalemCrawford, GAEMA HAS CONFIRMED A ROOF BLOWN OFF A HOME, ALONG WITH MULTIPLE TREES DOWN AROUND THE AREA ALONG HOPEWELL ROAD WEST.
19:19 UTCTORNADO3 Wsw MusellaCrawford, GAEMA CONFIRMED ROOF DAMAGE TO A HOME OFF TAYLOR ROAD, ALONG WITH MULTIPLE TREES DOWN AROUND THE AREA.
19:35 UTCTORNADO2 Ese RussellvilleMonroe, GAMULTIPLE TREES DOWN ALONG WITH SEVERAL SMALLER STRUCTURES SUSTAINING DAMAGE ALONG TREADWELL ROAD JUST BEFORE ROGERS CHURCH ROAD. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
19:57 UTCTORNADO1 Nw Dames FerryMonroe, GA*** 1 INJ *** A MOBILE HOME WAS OVERTURNED NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF GA-18 AND GA-87, INJURING ONE FEMALE OCCUPANT. NUMEROUS TREES WERE ALSO SNAPPED AND UPROOTED IN THE AREA.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of January 1, 2021

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
January 12:01 PM ESTEF0Taylor, GA2.9150$25,000
January 12:35 PM ESTEF0Monroe, GA1.2150$100,000
January 12:51 PM ESTEF1Monroe, GA3.3200$45,000

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.