EF0 tornado, Magnolia to Zebina, Georgia, January 4, 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

January 4, 2023

Touchdown

9:12 AM EST (14:12 UTC)

Lifted

9:18 AM EST (14:18 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

5.2 miles (8.4 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jefferson County

Touchdown point

33.087, -82.491

Lift-off point

33.105, -82.409

Record number

2301040812-01

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

• Tree down across roadway at this location: point entered remotely

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

A strong developing system over brought moist southerly winds across the north and central Georgia, creating isolated severe thunderstorms and flash flooding on the afternoon and evening of January 3rd. The severe weather threat continued into Wednesday, January 4th, as the storm progressed eastward and brought a cold front across the area, producing isolated damaging wind gusts.

The tornado touched down in central Jefferson county and produced minor damage to a couple warehouse buildings, farm equipment, and a school while also downing over a dozen trees between Louisville and Wren. The tornado touched down near the Ostro Steel building on Clarks Mill Rd where damage was sustained to the western wall of the metal building structure as well as to the heavy metal sign out front. The tornado then moved toward the ENE roughly along Mennonite Church Rd, where scattered trees were downed with minor damage to a metal roof structure. At the intersection of GA 296 and Warrior Trail an irrigation system was flipped over towards the north, indicating swirling winds. The tornado then moved towards the Jefferson County High School where the tornado quickly occluded, forcing strong rear-flank downdraft winds across the school as the tornado wrapped up to the north along US HWY 221. The winds over the school caused moderate damage to a softball field facility, destroying a shed, several signs, scoreboards, and the fencing around the field.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 08:59 UTC and running to 15:30 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:48 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 Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:13 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

16 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.