EF1 tornado, Chickasawhatchee to Sasser, Georgia, March 18, 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

March 18, 2021

Touchdown

8:49 AM EDT (12:49 UTC)

Lifted

8:52 AM EDT (12:52 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

4.0 miles (6.4 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Terrell County

Touchdown point

31.674, -84.379

Lift-off point

31.685, -84.313

Record number

2103180649-01

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Several pine trees snapped or uprooted.
• A significant portion of roof material removed or peeled back. Some plywood loss.
• A few pine trees uprooted along Kirbo Road.
• Several pine trees snapped and uprooted along Florida Short Route.

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

A strong spring cold front moved through the tri-state region. A squall line preceded the front with scattered reports of severe weather, including a few tornadoes.

An EF1 tornado touched down in Terrell County. Damage was initially reported along Kirbo Road where there was roof damage to one single family home. Numerous pines in the yard were snapped or uprooted at this residence. Further east on Kirbo Road, additional pine trees were snapped or uprooted. More trees were observed uprooted or snapped along Florida Short Route just to the northeast of Kirbo Road. No structures were damaged in this area. The tornado again snapped or uprooted several trees along Anthony Road. The tornado lifted before reaching US-82. NWS Tallahassee extends our appreciation to Terrell County Emergency Management for their assistance in this damage survey. Max winds were estimated around 90 mph.

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 11:55 UTC and running to 14:03 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 05:48 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), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:51 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

15 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.