EF1 tornado, Jeffersonville to Nickelsville, 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 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

April 5, 2022

Touchdown

4:11 PM EDT (20:11 UTC)

Lifted

4:22 PM EDT (20:22 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

12.3 miles (19.9 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Twiggs and Wilkinson counties

Touchdown point

32.648, -83.377

Lift-off point

32.714, -83.180

Record number

2204051411-01

79 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 160 mph.

• Complete collapse of 2 electrical transmission towers
• irrigation pivots flipped over -near center of track
• Location of damage that coincided with circulation moving north-northeast and eventually merged with primary circulation/tornado that hit Bonaire 15 minutes earlier.

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

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.

A high-end EF1 tornado quickly tracked across far eastern Twiggs |into southwest Wilkinson County. At its strongest, along Hwy 96 |south of Jeffersonville, the tornado was roughly 1.5 miles south |of the KJGX WSR-88D Radar. In this Hwy 96 area, five homes were |damaged, including a corner section/garage area of one home |collapsed but the roof and exterior walls remained in tact. |Numerous trees around this property were either snapped (some near|the base) or uprooted. Across the street on the west side of Hwy |96, a manufactured home was pushed off its foundation with |significant roof and siding damage. Another home had part of its |roof and chimney collapse with significant loss of its roof |covering removed. As the tornado continued to cycle and track east toward the |Wilkinson County line, it encountered mainly rural areas and open |fields before crossing Hwy 80, about 2.3 miles southeast of |Jeffersonville. Several trees were seen snapped or uprooted with |minor roof/shingle damage to a small one-story home. On the |Wilkinson County side, damage picked back up between Sinclair |Drive and Old Macon Road. This was mainly tree damage with minor |structural damage to a home along with several property fences |blown down. Further northeast, multiple trees were snapped or |uprooted along McCue Road and Knightpond Road, just before turning|into Stuckey Road. Based on radar, additional damage (trees) was |likely along Pleasant Plains Church Road but that road was flooded|at the time of this ground survey. End point was placed just |beyond this road. [4/5/22: Tornado #10, County #1/2, EF-1, Twiggs/Wilkinson, 2022:013].

Continuation from Twiggs County -- As the tornado continued to cycle and track east toward the Wilkinson County line, it encountered mainly rural areas and open |fields before crossing Hwy 80, about 2.3 miles southeast of Jeffersonville. Several trees were seen snapped or uprooted with minor roof/shingle damage to a small one-story home. On the Wilkinson County side, damage picked back up between Sinclair |Drive and Old Macon Road. This was mainly tree damage with minor structural damage to a home along with several property fences blown down. Further northeast, multiple trees were snapped or uprooted along McCue Road and Knightpond Road, just before turning into Stuckey Road. Based on radar, additional damage (trees) was likely along Pleasant Plains Church Road but that road was flooded at the time of this ground survey. End point was placed just beyond this road. [4/5/22: Tornado #10, County #2/2, EF-0, Twiggs/Wilkinson, 2022:013].

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

21 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:50 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:05 UTC and running to 21:10 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 Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 7 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:09 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.