EF1 tornado, Empire to Yonkers, Georgia, April 6, 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 6, 2022

Touchdown

8:39 PM EDT (00:39 UTC)

Lifted

8:55 PM EDT (00:55 UTC)

On the ground

16 minutes

Path length

11.4 miles (18.3 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Bleckley and Dodge counties

Touchdown point

32.388, -83.378

Lift-off point

32.375, -83.184

Record number

2204061839-01

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 tornado quickly developed along a line of storms moving through the town of Cochran during the evening hours of Wednesday April 6, 2022. The tornado spun up just west of town in a field south of Railroad Ave. The tornado first crossed W. Dykes St where roof damage was noted to several buildings and nearby homes. The tornado continued SE through town crossing 2nd and 3rd streets snapping and uprooting trees which caused some damage to homes before reaching Middle GA State College. The tornado snapped and uprooted trees on campus in addition to tearing a portion of the |roof on one of the campus buildings. The building damage and nearby tree damage at the intersection of 6th Street and College Street was the equivalent of mid range EF1 damage. The tornado continued SE crossing Pine Hill Drive and Willow Dr where numerous trees were snapped and uprooted on or very near homes in that area causing damage to several. The tornado continued east and began to weaken |but still sporadically snapping and uprooting trees along Denny Cooley Rd, Frank Cook Rd, Roddy Road, Cook and W. Chicken Road before lifting near Nicholson Carr Rd and county Road 257. It should be noted that the tornado doesn't appear to be consistently|on the ground once it gets east of the bypass east of Cochran and much of the damage east of Cochran was noted as spotty EF0. However, there was enough damage surveyed close enough damage surveyed close enough together to maintain a consistent track to County Road 257. [4/6/22: Tornado #7, County #1/2, EF-1, Bleckley/Dodge, 2022:027].

Continuation from Bleckley County -- It should be noted that the tornado doesn't appear to be consistently on the ground once it gets east of the bypass east of Cochran and much of the damage east of Cochran was noted as spotty EF0. However, there was enough damage surveyed close enough damage surveyed close enough together to maintain a consistent track to County Road 257. [4/6/22: Tornado #7, County #2/2, EF-0, Bleckley/Dodge, 2022:027].

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 17:32 UTC and running to 01:10 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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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), 33 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:40 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

12 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.