EF4 tornado, Handy to Thomas Xrds, Georgia, March 25, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF4

Date

March 25, 2021

Touchdown

11:37 PM EDT (03:37 UTC)

Lifted

12:30 AM EDT (04:30 UTC)

On the ground

53 minutes

Path length

38.6 miles (62.0 km)

Path width

1,850 yards (1692 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$21 million

Counties

Heard, Coweta and Fayette counties

Touchdown point

33.253, -85.189

Lift-off point

33.446, -84.562

Record number

2103252137-01

330 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX and NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF4. The highest wind the damage implies is 170 mph.

• numerous trees uprooted and snapped. based on aerial imagery
• Several trees uprooted and snapped. based on aerial imagery
• This house is totally collapsed and gone. Houses nearby are clear EF3
• Agricultural metal building systems destroyed. Owners asked that no photographs be taken of property and documentation remain vague.

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

A very moist and moderately unstable airmass over the region combined with strong shear and persistent southwesterly mid and upper flow produced numerous showers and thunderstorms across north and parts of central Georgia through the day on the 25th into the morning of the 26th. Numerous reports of flooding were received with several reports of severe thunderstorms and a few isolated tornadoes. Rainfall amounts of 2.5 to 6 inches were common over north Georgia, with 6 to 8 inches observed over the higher elevations of northeast Georgia.

A National Weather Service survey determined that an EF4 tornado with maximum wind speeds 170 MPH and a maximum path width of 1850 yards occurred in Coweta County. The Heard County tornado crossed into Coweta County along Bob Wilson Road and gained strength as it moved east-northeast crossing JD Walton Road and travelled up Smokey Road with trees falling on some homes. Wind speeds quickly increased to over 150 MPH, EF3 intensity, near Timberland Trail on the southwest side of Newnan. Many homes had major damage and one home had all but the back wall collapse. The family survived with no injuries by taking shelter in their bathtub. The tornado continued east-northeast crossing Smokey Road and Belk Road where it reached its maximum intensity of 170 MPH, EF4 intensity, as it entered the western city limits of Newnan. One home at the end of Fairview Drive had all exterior and interior walls removed. Four homes along Arlington Court north of Lagrange St were destroyed with one having all exterior and interior walls removed, but leaving a vehicle nearly untouched in what was the garage. |As the tornado moved east of Boone Drive, it directly struck Newnan High School and the surrounding athletics fields causing broken windows and doors and extensive roof and structural damage. A portion of the second-story brick wall near the front of the main campus building collapsed. One man died after he suffered a heart attack while trying to reach his daughter's home in a heavily damaged neighborhood after the storm had passed and first responders were unable to reach him due to the large amounts of debris in the area. The tornado weaken from this point onward continuing into the southern part of downtown Newnan, passing directly over the county Justice Center and adjacent administrative building which houses the 911 facility. Extensive roof and window damage along with some interior wind and water damage occurred at the facility. Numerous homes continued to receive damage from winds and falling trees as the tornado moved east-northeast crossing E Broad Street and Greison Trail with 120 to 135 MPH wind speeds. The tornado weakened further as it crossed I-85, causing only minor damage to trees and businesses on the southern end of the Ashley Park shopping center and a hospital. The tornado did re-intensify near the Windsong and White Oak neighborhoods around Shenandoah Boulevard and White Oak Drive east of the Newnan city limits, with max winds of 120 MPH. The tornado continued east-northeast weakening again but still producing damage to trees and power lines, some falling on homes as it crossed Sullivan Road and Lora Smith Road before passing over the Thomas Crossroads area. In neighborhoods south of Andrew Baily Road and north of Highway 34, several homes received damage from falling trees. The tornado continued weakening with more sporadic damage to several trees as it continued east-northeast crossing Fisher Road and Minix Road and moving into Fayette County. [3/25/21: Tornado #2, County #2/3, EF-4, Heard, Coweta, Fayette, 2021:007].

The deaths

0 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

24 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:13 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:46 UTC and running to 07:42 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 01:00 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.

Newnan Coweta County Airport (CCO), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 29 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:35 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

19 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.