EF0 tornado, Woodstock, Georgia, April 1, 2023

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

April 1, 2023

Touchdown

7:35 AM EDT (11:35 UTC)

Lifted

7:38 AM EDT (11:38 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.5 miles (4.0 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Cherokee County

Touchdown point

34.124, -84.536

Lift-off point

34.124, -84.492

Record number

2304010535-01

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 75 mph.

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

Active weather was expected as a very potent system moved into the midwest and rapidly deepened, driving a cold front into the CWA during the morning hours. Supercells were expected to condense into a linear system and enter the CWA around 2-4AM, enter the Atlanta metro 7-11AM and then progress into central GA. Clear conditions were expected behind the line.

The tornado first touchdown along the northern edge of homes along Dreamcatcher Drive where a few trees were snapped. The tornado continue east in a largely wooded area snapping trees behind some homes along Pine Bluff ct. As it crossed I575 the driver of a car reported being spun by the tornado and the hood of the car being blown back into and smashing the windshield. Street signs on both sides of I 575 were blown down as well as several small trees. The tornado continued east, crossing Olde Rope Mill Park Road and along Loraine Pkwy causing mostly tree damage before reaching Bell Park Drive and Bell Court Where several trees were snapped. The storm continued into South Cherokee Recreational complex where the roof of a dugout was blown off, bleachers were overturned and a press box was blown over. The tornado weakened and lifted as it reached Mill Creek Road.

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 08:20 UTC and running to 11:56 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:40 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 Atlanta radar (KFFC), 85 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:32 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 2023 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

21 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.