EF1 tornado, Pyles Marsh to (Ssi)Mckinnon Arpt B, Georgia, August 30, 2023

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

August 30, 2023

Touchdown

7:40 AM EDT (11:40 UTC)

Lifted

7:49 AM EDT (11:49 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

7.9 miles (12.7 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Glynn County

Touchdown point

31.151, -81.493

Lift-off point

31.253, -81.550

Record number

2308300540-01

35 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 94 mph.

• One trunk and several branches down
• Large branch more than 3” diameter and dead large tree
• Large trunk snapped in half and numerous large limbs and power wires down
• 4 big trees knocked town and uprooted. Fence also knocked down.

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

Hurricane Idalia made landfall Wednesday morning August 30th around 745 AM EDT along the|Florida Big Bend near Keaton Beach as a category 3, with the inner core moving NE across the|Suwannee River Valley. The inner wind core of Idalia gradually weakened through the morning while,|heavily impacting Suwannee and Hamilton counties in NE Florida and Echols county SE Georgia as the|circulation tracked NE. Widespread tree, power line and structure damage occurred across Suwannee|and Hamilton counties, with estimated winds of 80-100 mph based on damage surveys with isolated|pockets of peak wind gusts near major hurricane strength. Outer rainbands on the eastside of Idalia|impacted all of SE Georgia and NE FL through the day, with early morning tornadoes across coastal SE|Georgia and widespread tropical cyclone wind gusts through the day causing tree damage and power|line damage at least somewhere across NE Florida and SE Georgia. Measured gusts during the peak of|the hurricane acorss the local forecast area were 60-80 mph. Flooding rainfall impacted locations in|the direct path of the weakening inner core across the Suwannee River Valley and southeast Georgia,|especially from eastern Hamilton county toward Baxley and Jesup GA. The peak rainfall amounts were|up to 5-8 inches. At least 3 tornadoes occurred in southeast GA as rainbands swept northwestward|ahead of the hurricane.

NWS Survey team found evidence of a weak tornado yesterday in southern Glynn |county. This tornado was spawned by outer rain bands from Hurricane Idalia. |This particular tornado began just south of Highway 17 and crossed the highway |around Fancy Bluff with mostly tree damage and downed powerlines, traversing |the area from southeast to northwest. It then crossed through Emanuel |Church Road with tree limbs downed, then shifted a bit more west-northwest |toward Georgetown and near Bladen where large tree branches were downed. |The tree damage supports damage rating of an EF-0 rating with maximum winds |near 70 mph.

Outer rainbands on the NE side of Hurricane |Idalia spawned isolated tornadoes during the morning hours |across portions of SE Georgia. |||A tornado with peak intensity of EF1 impacted the south and |west sides of the city of Brunswick where trees and some |structures were damaged beginning near Gloucester Street. |The tornado tracked NNW near Newcastle Street, then storm |took more of a NW track near the intersection of Interstate |95 and the New Jesup Highway/US Highway 341. Mainly tree |damage occurred including numerous large limbs and some |large hard wood trees blown down and snapped. There was some |structure damage to mainly outbuildings including sheds |and fences.

Outer rainbands on the NE side of Hurricane Idalia |spawned isolated tornadoes during the morning hours across |portions of SE Georgia. ||A short-lived tornado moved inland across St. Simons Sound and |tracked NNW across the south side of St. Simons Island near |Kings Way where hard wood trees were uprooted. Peak intensity |reach EF1 strength.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:23 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 09:38 UTC and running to 15:33 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:44 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.

Brunswick/Glynco (BQK), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:41 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

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.