Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2022
EF1 tornado, Rebie to Alcorns, Georgia, April 5, 2022
From Rebie to Alcorns, this EF1 tornado ran 1.8 miles across Bleckley and Laurens counties on April 5, 2022, touching down at 6:30 PM EDT and reaching 250 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF1
- Date
- April 5, 2022
- Touchdown
- 6:30 PM EDT (22:30 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:33 PM EDT (22:33 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 1.8 miles (2.9 km)
- Path width
- 250 yards (229 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Counties
- Bleckley and Laurens counties
- Touchdown point
- 32.440, -83.155
- Lift-off point
- 32.452, -83.128
- Record number
- 2204051630-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A multi-day severe weather outbreak initiated with a warm moist air mass situated over Georgia as a strengthening upper level system pushed across central Georgia. With moderate instability in place with increased shear, combined to create numerous severe thunderstorms, taking the form of a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) with several strong supercells ahead of the front. The resulting front stalled across central Georgia and interacted with a weaker shortwave moving up from the Gulf of Mexico, serving as a catalyst for another day of severe weather and flash flooding on April 6th.
The parent storm responsible for the QLCS tornado which impacted |the south side of Cochran quickly regenerated a new EF1 tornado |near the Bleckley and Laurens county line south of W. Chicken |Road. Trees were snapped and uprooted as the tornado crossed |Branch Road. The tornado quickly reached maximum intensity along |Hillbridge Road where hundreds of trees were snapped an uprooted.|The storm continued east into a wooded area before lifting at |Thompson Road. [4/5/22: Tornado #17, County #1/2, EF-1, Bleckley/Laurens, 2022:020].
The parent storm responsible for the QLCS tornado which impacted |the south side of Cochran quickly regenerated a new EF1 tornado |near the Bleckley and Laurens county line south of W. Chicken |Road. Trees were snapped and uprooted as the tornado crossed |Branch Road. The tornado quickly reached maximum intensity along |Hillbridge Road where hundreds of trees were snapped an uprooted.|The storm continued east into a wooded area before lifting at |Thompson Road. [4/5/22: Tornado #17, County #2/2, EF-1, Bleckley/Laurens, 2022:020].
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:05 UTC | 21:10 UTC | Tornado Watch | FFC |
| 19:13 UTC | 20:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC |
| 20:00 UTC | 20:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | FFC |
| 20:06 UTC | 20:36 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC |
| 20:15 UTC | 20:35 UTC | Tornado Warning | FFC |
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 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 20:00 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 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
10.5 hours before the tornado, 163 km from the path. April 5, 2022.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -100409 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1643 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 39 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 146 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 259 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 1.7 K/km
Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 00:00Z
1.5 hours after it, 163 km from the path. April 6, 2022.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -89454 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 36 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 707 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 227 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 268 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.6 K/km
The radar
The Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 32 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:26 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19:49 UTC | TORNADO | Bonaire | Houston, GA | *** 1 INJ *** A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN AS IT APPROACHED BONAIRE AND RAPIDLY INTENSIFIED INTO EF-3 STRENGTH. TWO LARGE HIGH-TENSION POWER LINE TOWERS WERE DESTROYED ALONG WITH A LARGE CONCRETE POWER POLE. MULTIPLE HOMES EXP |
| 19:50 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nne Bonaire | Houston, GA | REPORT OF 1 HOME DESTROYED WITH POWERLINES DOWN. |
| 20:11 UTC | TORNADO | 2 N District Path | Twiggs, GA | AN EF-1 TORNADO TRACKED ACROSS FAR EASTERN TWIGGS INTO SOUTHWEST WILKINSON COUNTY. NUMEROUS TREES WERE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. SEVERAL HOMES SUSTAINED DAMAGE, SOME SIGNIFICANT, ALONG THE TRACK 12.4 MILE LONG TRACK. |
| 20:14 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nw Empire | Bleckley, GA | AN EF-1 TORNADO QUICKLY DEVELOPED ON THE SOUTHEAST SIDE OF COCHRAN. A NUMBER OF TREES WERE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED IN COCHRAN. SEVERAL HOMES ALSO EXPERIENCED DAMAGE ALONG THE 7.7 MILE TRACK WITH THE 2ND STORY OF ONE HOME REM |
| 20:15 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nnw Empire | Bleckley, GA | SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO A ROOF OF A ONE-STORY HOME JUST OFF OLD EASTMAN ROAD NEAR THE BLECKLEY AND DODGE COUNTY LINE. THE TORNADO HAD ALREADY BEEN DOWN FOR 1-2 MINUTES BEFORE THIS AREA WAS HIT. |
| 20:18 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nw Roddy | Dodge, GA | TREES SNAPPED AND UPROOTED NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF W CHICKEN ROAD AND RODDY HWY IN DODGE COUNTY. |
| 20:24 UTC | TORNADO | 3 S Abbeville | Wilcox, GA | TREES DOWN AND A SMALL SHED DESTROYED ALONG SIBBIE ROAD, NORTH OF AMERICAN LEGION ROAD. |
| 20:25 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Sse Abbeville | Wilcox, GA | MULTIPLE TREES DOWN ALONG HWY 129 SOUTH. |
| 22:30 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Ene Rowland | Bleckley, GA | THE PARENT STORM RESPONSIBLE FOR THE QLCS TORNADO WHICH IMPACTED THE SOUTH SIDE OF COCHRAN QUICKLY REGENERATED A NEW EF1 TORNADO NEAR THE BLECKLEY AND LAURENS COUNTY LINE. HUNDEREDS OF TREES WERE SNAPPED AND UPROOTED ALO |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 5, 2022
66 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 5 | 3:45 AM CDT | EF1 | Lincoln Parish, LA | 5.1 | 150 | $10,000 | ||
| April 5 | 6:46 AM CDT | EF1 | Scott, MS | 7.6 | 100 | $40,000 | ||
| April 5 | 7:00 AM CDT | EF1 | Scott, MS | 4.7 | 300 | $25,000 | ||
| April 5 | 7:06 AM CDT | EF1 | Jefferson Davis, MS | 3.1 | 100 | $40,000 | ||
| April 5 | 7:09 AM CDT | EF1 | Scott, MS | 2.1 | 100 | $25,000 | ||
| April 5 | 7:09 AM CDT | EF2 | Jefferson Davis, MS | 14.8 | 400 | $150,000 | ||
| April 5 | 7:16 AM CDT | EF1 | Newton, MS | 4.0 | 100 | $75,000 | ||
| April 5 | 7:22 AM CDT | EF1 | Covington, MS | 16.5 | 440 | $81,000 | ||
| April 5 | 7:56 AM CDT | EF1 | Jones, MS | 8.6 | 250 | $50,000 | ||
| April 5 | 8:06 AM CDT | EF1 | Clarke, MS | 2.9 | 250 | $150,000 | ||
| April 5 | 8:14 AM CDT | EF2 | Wayne, MS | 2.2 | 250 | |||
| April 5 | 8:18 AM CDT | EF0 | Lauderdale, MS | 2.5 | 25 | $30,000 | ||
| April 5 | 8:19 AM CDT | EF1 | Wayne, MS | 2.6 | 100 | |||
| April 5 | 8:36 AM CDT | EF1 | Wayne, MS | 0.3 | 50 | |||
| April 5 | 9:03 AM CDT | EF2 | Clarke, AL | 9.5 | 800 | |||
| April 5 | 9:10 AM CDT | EF1 | Clarke, AL | 1.8 | 100 | |||
| April 5 | 10:10 AM CDT | EF1 | Monroe, AL | 1.5 | 75 | |||
| April 5 | 10:54 AM CDT | EF2 | Elmore, AL | 4.4 | 900 | |||
| April 5 | 10:56 AM CDT | EF2 | Crenshaw, AL | 1.3 | 250 | |||
| April 5 | 11:03 AM CDT | EF2 | Pike, AL | 12.7 | 1,100 | |||
| April 5 | 11:06 AM CDT | EF0 | Elmore, AL | 5.3 | 300 | |||
| April 5 | 11:19 AM CDT | EF1 | Macon, AL | 4.3 | 250 | |||
| April 5 | 11:20 AM CDT | Unrated | Crenshaw, AL | 0.4 | 25 | |||
| April 5 | 11:22 AM CDT | EF0 | Tallapoosa, AL | 1.8 | 110 | |||
| April 5 | 11:34 AM CDT | EF1 | Pike, AL | 7.6 | 550 | |||
| April 5 | 11:45 AM CDT | EF0 | Chambers, AL | 0.4 | 200 | |||
| April 5 | 11:50 AM CDT | EF1 | Bullock, AL | 1.6 | 600 | |||
| April 5 | 12:38 PM CDT | EF1 | Barbour, AL | 1.5 | 200 | |||
| April 5 | 2:04 PM EDT | EF1 | Chattahoochee, GA | 6.7 | 300 | |||
| April 5 | 1:24 PM CDT | EF0 | Henry, AL | 2.8 | 50 | |||
| April 5 | 2:29 PM EDT | EF1 | Taylor, GA | 3.0 | 150 | |||
| April 5 | 1:38 PM CDT | EF0 | Houston, AL | 6.8 | 200 | $150,000 | ||
| April 5 | 1:39 PM CDT | EF1 | Geneva, AL | 0.2 | 50 | $3,000 | ||
| April 5 | 2:50 PM EDT | EF1 | Taylor, GA | 7.2 | 300 | |||
| April 5 | 1:53 PM CDT | EF0 | Houston, AL | 0.1 | 25 | $50,000 | ||
| April 5 | 3:01 PM EDT | EF1 | Macon, GA | 17.3 | 250 | |||
| April 5 | 3:07 PM EDT | EF1 | Crawford, GA | 8.8 | 200 | |||
| April 5 | 3:15 PM EDT | EF1 | Early, GA | 4.9 | 50 | |||
| April 5 | 3:15 PM EDT | EF1 | Early, GA | 7.1 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| April 5 | 3:26 PM EDT | EF2 | Dooly, GA | 5.8 | 300 | |||
| April 5 | 3:33 PM EDT | EF1 | Bibb, GA | 2.0 | 100 | |||
| April 5 | 3:49 PM EDT | EF3 | Houston, GA | 3.9 | 820 | 3 | ||
| April 5 | 3:50 PM EDT | EF3 | Allendale, SC | 13.3 | 1,000 | 1 | ||
| April 5 | 3:51 PM EDT | EF0 | Baker, GA | 0.6 | 25 | |||
| April 5 | 4:01 PM EDT | EF0 | Baldwin, GA | 1.7 | 150 | |||
| April 5 | 4:11 PM EDT | EF1 | Twiggs, GA | 12.3 | 400 | |||
| April 5 | 4:12 PM EDT | EF1 | Mitchell, GA | 8.1 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| April 5 | 4:14 PM EDT | EF1 | Bleckley, GA | 7.6 | 125 | |||
| April 5 | 4:18 PM EDT | EF1 | Bamberg, SC | 3.7 | 250 | |||
| April 5 | 4:20 PM EDT | EF0 | Wilcox, GA | 9.4 | 200 | |||
| April 5 | 4:39 PM EDT | EF0 | Bamberg, SC | 2.4 | 200 | |||
| April 5 | 4:53 PM EDT | EF0 | Orangeburg, SC | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| April 5 | 5:07 PM EDT | EF0 | Orangeburg, SC | 0.8 | 200 | |||
| April 5 | 5:10 PM EDT | EF0 | Treutlen, GA | 0.9 | 100 | |||
| April 5 | 5:17 PM EDT | EF1 | Treutlen, GA | 0.8 | 200 | |||
| April 5 | 5:18 PM EDT | EF4 | Pembroke–Black Creek tornado, GA | 14.4 | 1,300 | 1 | 12 | |
| April 5 | 5:22 PM EDT | EF1 | Emanuel, GA | 6.2 | 150 | |||
| April 5 | 5:27 PM EDT | EF0 | Emanuel, GA | 0.7 | 50 | |||
| April 5 | 5:35 PM EDT | EF2 | Lexington, SC | 5.7 | 100 | 1 | ||
| April 5 | 6:03 PM EDT | EF1 | Allendale, SC | 1.3 | 100 |
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.