EF1 tornado, La Grange Callawy Ar to Knott, Georgia, February 17, 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

February 17, 2023

Touchdown

4:31 AM EST (09:31 UTC)

Lifted

4:38 AM EST (09:38 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.7 miles (9.2 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Troup County

Touchdown point

33.025, -85.064

Lift-off point

33.044, -84.968

Record number

2302170331-01

42 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.

• Stoplight blown down from power line
• Window blown out on circle k car wash. The car wash had the doors open.
• Bleachers got thrown at fence causing significant damage to the fence. The rebar didn’t extend the whole way through just the bottom portion.
• Trees uprooted and possible damage to the small brick wall due to the uprooting.

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 north and central Georgia during the early morning hours of February 17, 2023. This line of storms produced isolated wind damage and with a highly sheared environment, allowed for a tornado to spin up just on the outskirts of LaGrange.

The tornado began northeast of the airport near the intersection of Gordon Road and Swanson Dr. Sporadic EF-0 tree damage occurred as it traveled east before intensifying to a low end EF-1 near Callaway Stadium on the LaGrange College campus. Roof damage occurred both to a local brewery and Georgia health department building. The most considerable damage occurred to a house near this location along Forrest Avenue where a large oak tree was uprooted and fell into the home. Several bleachers were tossed into a brick and metal fence destroying a portion of the fence. Damage continued to the northeast where numerous trees were uprooted and several homes sustained minor roof damage. Another area of EF-1 damage was observed at the George F. Harris Baseball Complex where a few trees were uprooted and several were snapped. The tornado then entered another area of homes where some tree damage and uprooted trees were noted before entering a shopping district along Highway 109 just west of I-85. Several businesses had damaged signs and minor roof damage. A local gas station had windows blown out of a car wash. Some additional damage continued to the northeast with some trees downed before the tornado lifted near the intersection of I-85 and Highway 109.

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.

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 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.

La_grange (LGC), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:30 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

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.