EF1 tornado, Stillwell to Springfield, 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

10:48 PM EDT (02:48 UTC)

Lifted

10:50 PM EDT (02:50 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.9 miles (3.1 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Effingham County

Touchdown point

32.372, -81.283

Lift-off point

32.398, -81.295

Record number

2107072048-01

13 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CHS, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Tied down shed overturned and destroyed.
• Multiple tree trunks snapped.
• Multiple trees snapped and uprooted. Convergent pattern.
• Metal carport bent and collapsed.

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

Elsa initially developed as a Tropical Depression over the central tropical Atlantic late in the evening of June 30th, 2021. The system quickly tracked to the west-northwest and became Tropical Storm Elsa on the morning of July 1st, 2021 about 850 miles east-southeast of the Windward Islands. Elsa strengthened to a hurricane and crossed the Windward Islands on July 2nd, 2021. Over the next several days, Elsa moved across the eastern Caribbean and weakened back to a Tropical Storm as it interacted with the higher terrain of the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba. Elsa moved into the eastern Gulf of Mexico late in the evening of July 5th, 2021 and moved north along the west coast of Florida. Elsa made landfall as a Tropical Storm in Taylor County along the north Florida coast on the morning of July 7th, 2021. After landfall, Elsa weakened and tracked northeastward across portions of Georgia and South Carolina through July 8th, 2021. The primary impacts to southeast Georgia and southeast South Carolina included heavy rainfall, a few tornadoes, and gusty winds. Rainfall amounts peaked in the 6-8 inch range across portions of Charleston, Chatham, Beaufort, and Colleton counties. The heavy rainfall did produce some street flooding, causing some roadways to become impassable in and around Savannah and Charleston. Peak winds occurred along the Chatham, Jasper, and Beaufort county coasts where a Weatherflow site in Calibogue Sound measured a 70 knot wind gust. Elsewhere, wind gusts peaked in the 35-45 knot range producing scattered wind damage.

A National Weather Service (NWS) storm survey team determined that an EF-1 tornado occurred near Springfield in Effingham County. The tornado began just north of Stillwell Road and east of Mock Road at Mose Mock Farms where the tops of several trees were sheared off, large branches were blown down, and a carport collapsed. The tornado then moved northwest, snapping and uprooting several trees along Mock Road and in a field near a powerline easement. The tornado then strengthened as it turned north and moved along Wood Duck Way. Multiple homes on Wood Duck Way and Riley Court suffered minor roof and siding damage, two boats on trailers were lifted and overturned, a carport collapsed, and numerous trees were uprooted or snapped. The tornado then continued northward, crossing Highway 119 where it snapped and uprooted a few trees and knocked down powerlines before dissipating in a field just north of the highway. A vehicle ran into a downed tree on Highway 119 and the driver sustained minor injuries. The maximum strength of the tornado was estimated to be EF-1, with peak winds of 105 mph, particularly in the area of Wood Duck Way and Riley Court.

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 23:42 UTC and running to 06:06 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.

Savannah - Hilton Head (SAV), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:46 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.