EF1 tornado, Rockingham to New Lacy, Georgia, January 22, 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

January 22, 2023

Touchdown

6:32 PM EST (23:32 UTC)

Lifted

6:42 PM EST (23:42 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

7.5 miles (12.1 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Bacon County

Touchdown point

31.571, -82.429

Lift-off point

31.602, -82.308

Record number

2301221732-01

10 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 104 mph.

• Multiple pines (about 40) trunks snapped at base.
• End of track. Crossed creek from Bacon County into Appling County.

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

A warm front lifted northward across SE GA during the morning and placed the entire forecast area within the warm sector ahead of an approaching pre-frontal squall line. Strong SSW speed shear was over the area with 0-6 km bulk shear 50-60 kts across SE GA to 40-50 kts southward across NE FL. Warm and unstable conditions pushed northward to near Waycross into the afternoon with ML CAPE 1000-1500 J/kg as the pre-frontal convection approached into the late afternoon and early evening. Strong to severe storms moved across the local area during the late afternoon and early evening producing wind damage and a couple of tornadoes in SE GA.

A tornado touched down NE of Alma GA near the Bennett Still Highway in Bacon County. The tornado tracked NE about 3.5 miles and crossed the Dedge Farm Road and Mallard Road. The tornado track then shifted more east to northeast and passed Whip-Poor-Will Way and crossed Oak Hill Church Road. It then weakened as it crossed the Big Satilla Creek and traveled into Appling County. Areas of large trees, snapped at the base and uprooted, were observed along the entire damage path. There was moderate structure damage near the Bacon and Appling county line which included a trailer tipped over onto an adjacent vehicle at Cardinal Road. There was also a collapsed barn roof on Red Oak Road. Peak winds were estimated at 104 mph with this tornado documented as an EF1.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:21 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:43 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 Moody AFB radar (KVAX), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:32 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

4 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.