Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2023
EF1 tornado, Crisp County, Georgia, April 13, 2023
This EF1 tornado ran 4.8 miles across Crisp County on April 13, 2023, touching down at 2:37 PM EDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF1
- Date
- April 13, 2023
- Touchdown
- 2:37 PM EDT (18:37 UTC)
- Lifted
- 2:46 PM EDT (18:46 UTC)
- On the ground
- 9 minutes
- Path length
- 4.8 miles (7.7 km)
- Path width
- 150 yards (137 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Crisp County
- Touchdown point
- 31.942, -83.740
- Lift-off point
- 31.990, -83.683
- Record number
- 2304131237-01
The damage survey
3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:42 UTC and running to 23:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:42 UTC | 23:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | FFC |
| 18:34 UTC | 19:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC |
| 18:44 UTC | 18:55 UTC | Tornado Warning | FFC |
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 forecast that day
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 16:04 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 air that afternoon
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.
Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 12:00Z
6.6 hours before the tornado, 173 km from the path. April 13, 2023.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -87558 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1223 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 174 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 229 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 00:00Z
5.4 hours after it, 173 km from the path. April 14, 2023.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 300 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -5 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 535 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 554 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 43 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 217 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 237 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.2
- Supercell composite
- 1.5
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.0 K/km
The surface observations
Cordele (CKF), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:55 UTC | 68.2 | 62.8 | 110° 10 kt | 1013.9 | ||
| 17:15 UTC | 68.4 | 62.8 | 110° 11 kt | 17 | 1013.5 | |
| 17:35 UTC | 69 | 63.3 | 120° 10 kt | 17 | 1012.9 | |
| 17:55 UTC | 69.8 | 63.7 | 100° 8 kt | 1012.5 | ||
| 18:15 UTC | 69.4 | 63.7 | 90° 6 kt | 1012.9 | -VCTSRA | |
| 18:35 UTC | 68.7 | 64.2 | 320° 8 kt | 1012.9 | +TSRA | |
| 18:55 UTC | 65.3 | 62.8 | 10° 9 kt | 1011.5 | -TSRA | |
| 19:15 UTC | 66.7 | 61 | 0° 0 kt | 1012.5 | VCTS | |
| 19:35 UTC | 69.8 | 61.7 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.9 | VCTS | |
| 19:55 UTC | 71.4 | 61.7 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.2 | ||
| 20:15 UTC | 73.4 | 62.6 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.2 | ||
| 20:35 UTC | 73.6 | 63.3 | 100° 6 kt | 1010.8 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:36 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:34 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ne Wenona | Crisp, GA | NUMEROUS TREES REPORTED DOWN ALONG OLD HATLEY RD NEAR HWY 90. |
| 18:34 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 N Wenona | Crisp, GA | REPORTS OF DAMAGE AROUND THE EAST SIDE OF CORDELE, STARTING ROUGHLY 2 MILES SOUTH OF TOWN ON HWY 90. DAMAGE INCLUDES DOWNED TREES AND POWERLINES. |
| 18:36 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Wnw East Crisp | Crisp, GA | TREES DOWN IN WOODED AREA ALONG OLD PENIA RD JUST EAST OF PENIA, GA. NEAREST CROSS STREET IS OLD PENIA RD AND PENIA RD N. |
| 18:42 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Sw Tremont | Crisp, GA | MULTIPLE TREES DOWN WITH CAR IN DITCH AT 900 BLOCK OF CEMETERY RD BETWEEN OLD TREMONT RD AND DOROUGH RD N. |
| 20:16 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ene Cochran | Bleckley, GA | TREE UPROOTED ALONG FAIRFIELD STREET NEAR CLARENDON RD AND BERKLEY RD IN EAST COCHRAN. |
| 20:16 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ne Cochran | Bleckley, GA | TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN, HIGH SCHOOL GYM SIDING OFF, AND DEBRIS IN ROAD FROM LOCAL BUSINESS ALONG E DYKES ST BETWEEN CHESTER RD AND 9TH ST SE. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2023 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 13, 2023
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 13 | 4:21 PM EDT | EF0 | Bleckley, GA | 0.9 | 100 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.