EF1 tornado, St Marys to Harriets Bluff, Georgia, July 7, 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

July 7, 2021

Touchdown

5:43 PM EDT (21:43 UTC)

Lifted

5:49 PM EDT (21:49 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

7.6 miles (12.2 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

17

County

Camden County

Touchdown point

30.721, -81.547

Lift-off point

30.830, -81.560

Record number

2107071543-01

25 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Garage apartment garage below apartment completely collapsed apartment down on ground now older structure structurally compromised lower degree of damage by about 20 mph
• Reports of a possible pick up truck in the lake this is unconfirmed and is probably not the case
• RV in lake with the two tires hanging out blew from this location towards the stand up lines the other debris damage came from the next lot over and blew out towards the lake and the pine trees so the vehicle that is in the middle actually fell about halfway to the lake and then the one that was in this lot we completely to the lake. If there is a pick up truck in the lake which we do not know it came from this location
• Solar Panels ripped out. Unspecified damage between RV park and this point.

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

Tropical Storm Elsa tracked NNE across the western tier of the local forecast area through the day on Wed, July 7th. The storm made landfall along the FL Big Bend coast. The main impacts from TS Elsa for the local area included 3 confirmed tornadoes, downed trees due to gusty winds, and heavy rainfall which caused river flooding. There was one loss of life due to a tree falling onto a car. Peak rainfall amount was near 7.2 inches in Alachua county and the peak recorded wind gust in a squall was 58 mph in Jekyll Island GA.

An EF1 tornado with peak winds near 100 mph touched down along East St. Mary's River Street, just north of the St. Mary's River, where tree trunks were snapped. The tornado strengthened to peak EF1 intensity and produced significant damage to residences along E. Conyers and Norris Streets in St. Mary's before pivoting north-northeastward. The tornado then damaged homes and apartments along Point Peter Road. The tornado reached maximum width near the Eagle Hammock RV Park at EF1 intensity. Multiple recreational vehicles were flipped over, with two completely flipped upside down. One RV was flipped and blown about 200 yards into a lake on the north side of the park. Several hardwood trees at the park were snapped. There was debris from the RVs scattered throughout the RV park area. The last of tornado damage included solar panel damage just south of Crooked River State Park. There were 17 reported injuries and 11 of the 17 had to be transported to a hospital.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:42 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:05 UTC and running to 00:00 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 19:58 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 Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 35 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:44 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

6 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.