EF1 tornado, Chokee to Flintside, 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

3:29 PM EDT (19:29 UTC)

Lifted

3:38 PM EDT (19:38 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

Counties

Lee and Sumter counties

Touchdown point

31.893, -84.013

Lift-off point

31.914, -83.961

Record number

2204061329-01

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC and NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• about 10 trees snapped ir uprooted
• swath of 20 pecan trees uprooted
• Observed trees being lofted in video. Possible part of tin roof also observed airborne. https://youtu.be/SaTF_Ubsbqs
• Several large trees and limbs lofted as observed from storm chaser video of the tornado https://youtu.be/SaTF_Ubsbqs

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

A slow moving cold front brought multiple rounds of severe weather to the tri-state region from April 5-7. Several tornadoes occurred along with numerous reports of wind damage and a few reports of large hail. None of the tornadoes were rated stronger than EF1.

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 touched down southwest of the intersection of New York Rd and Larsen Rd in Lee County shortly before 3:30 pm EDT. The tornado caused considerable tree damage as it moved northeastward towards Lake Blackshear. There was also roof damage to several homes along the path. The damage in Lee county was consistent with an EF1 tornado with winds of approximately 105 mph. The start point was based on a combination of radar data and video of the tornado initiation found on social media. This tornado continued into Sumter County.

Tornado touched down southwest of the intersection of New York Rd|and Larsen Rd in Lee County shortly before 330 PM. There was roof |damage to several homes along the path. The tornado also caused|considerable tree damage as it moved northeastward towards Lake|Blackshear and weakened somewhat in far southeast Sumter County |before lifting. The damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado |with winds of approximately 105 mph. The start point was based on |a combination of radar data and video of the tornado initiation |found on social media. This tornado affected both the NWS |Tallahassee and NWS Peachtree City/Atlanta forecast areas. [4/6/22: Tornado #1, County #2/2, EF-1, Lee (NWS Tallahassee)/Sumter, 2022:021].

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:09 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:33 UTC and running to 04:00 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:12 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), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:31 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.