EF0 tornado, Canon Franklin Co Ar to Bowman, Georgia, August 3, 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

August 3, 2023

Touchdown

3:51 PM EDT (19:51 UTC)

Lifted

4:16 PM EDT (20:16 UTC)

On the ground

25 minutes

Path length

10.4 miles (16.8 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Franklin, Hart and Elbert counties

Touchdown point

34.331, -83.182

Lift-off point

34.220, -83.055

Record number

2308031351-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GSP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

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

A line of thunderstorms moved into northeast Georgia during the late afternoon. An embedded cell within this line produced a weak tornado that tracked across parts of three counties. Some isolated gusty winds were also reported.

NWS storm survey found the path of a weak tornado that touched down north of Starrs Bridge Rd, just west of Johns Bridge Rd. The tornado tracked southeast, crossing Starrs Bridge Rd, Bryant Park Rd, and Campbell Ridge Rd before crossing through the western side of Royston. The tornado passed into Hart County on the south side of Royston. Damage was limited to multiple uprooted trees.

NWS storm survey determined a tornado that touched down in Franklin County crossed into Hart County on the south side of Royston, and continued moving southeast through the western part of the county, essentially paralleling Highway 17. The tornado crossed into Elbert County just west of the highway. Damage remained limited to uprooted trees and large snapped limbs in Hart County.

NWS storm survey found a tornado that began in Franklin County and crossed through western Hart County, moved into Elbert County just west of Highway 17 before lifting. Damage was limited to uprooted trees and snapped tree limbs.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS GSP issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:41 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:27 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 Greer radar (KGSP), 106 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:50 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

3 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.