EF4 Pembroke–Black Creek tornado, Georgia, April 5, 2022

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

April 5, 2022

Touchdown

5:18 PM EDT (21:18 UTC)

Lifted

5:33 PM EDT (21:33 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

14.4 miles (23.2 km)

Path width

1,300 yards (1189 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

12

County

Bryan County

Touchdown point

32.120, -81.656

Lift-off point

32.185, -81.422

Record number

2204051518-01

24 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CHS, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF4. The highest wind the damage implies is 185 mph.

• Mobile home rolled 30 to 50 feet.
• 1 fatality and 1 injury. Mobile home rollover.
• Several homes damaged along Homestead Drive.
• Bryan County Court House had significant roof damage and broken windows. Location near the beginning of the tornado damage path.

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

A severe quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) moved through southeast Georgia during the afternoon into early evening hours of April 5, 2022 as a mid-level shortwave ejected rapidly across the region in advance of a surface cold front. The environment ahead of the QLCS was favorable for severe local storms as southerly winds spread mid 60 dewpoint temperatures into a warm sector across the Southeast United States and favorable mid-level lapse rates and lifted index values helped produce mixed layer convective available potential energy (MLCAPE) as high as 1500-2000 J/kg during peak surface heating across southeast Georgia. Within the warm sector, strong shear associated with 50-70 knot low and mid-level jets beneath the left front quadrant of a 120 knot upper-level jet, 0-6 km bulk shear around 50 knots, and 0-3 km storm relative helicity in excess of 300 m2/s2 were supportive of well organized convection and potentially embedded supercell thunderstorms in a QLCS capable of producing a prolonged path of damaging winds and strong long-track tornadoes. As the QLCS swept through southeast Georgia, a few discrete supercell thunderstorms became exceptionally strong near or just ahead of the main line of thunderstorms, producing damaging winds, large hail, and a violent EF-4 tornado near Pembroke, GA that took 1 life and injured 12 others along an approximately 14.5 mile path.

A National Weather Service Storm Survey Team confirmed an EF-4 tornado with estimated maximum wind speed of 185 mph in Bryan County Georgia. The violent tornado began just west of the Bryan County Courthouse in Pembroke, where it damaged part of the roof, blew out some windows, and snapped numerous trees. The tornado continued along a northeast path across a wooded, marshy area, including C C Road, Stubbs Farm Road, and Stubby Road. In this area, the tornado produced significant tree damage, and heavily damaged a residence on Stubbs Farm Road. The tornado then continued east-northeast moving through Hendrix Park, Park Place subdivision, and Black Creek Golf Course, where it reached a maximum width of 3/4 of a mile and peak EF-4 intensity. Across this area, the tornado extensively damaged most homes, structures and trees. Some homes and structures were completely destroyed. Several injuries, some serious, occurred in this area as well. The tornado then continued east-northeast over wooded and marshy areas, across Olive Branch Road and across the southern end of Homestead Drive. Several mobile homes were completely destroyed in this area, causing additional injuries and tragically claiming the life of an adult female. The tornado began to weaken as it moved toward the interchange of I-16 and U.S. Highway 280. In this area, there was some minor roof damage to a large industrial building off of Oracal Parkway Circle, as well as some snapping and uprooting of trees. The tornado finally dissipated in a marshy region just east of Oracal Parkway Circle.

The deaths

1 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.

28 minutes of warning. NWS CHS issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:50 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:33 UTC and running to 23:54 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 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 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 Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:21 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 2022 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

66 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 67 of them

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.