EF2 tornado, Blakely to Nicholasville, Georgia, June 14, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

June 14, 2023

Touchdown

2:04 PM EDT (18:04 UTC)

Lifted

2:41 PM EDT (18:41 UTC)

On the ground

37 minutes

Path length

18.9 miles (30.4 km)

Path width

700 yards (640 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

County

Early County

Touchdown point

31.357, -84.945

Lift-off point

31.424, -84.635

Record number

2306141204-01

46 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 122 mph.

• updated given knowledge of many trees gone
• updated given knowledge of many trees down
• Oaks topped. Possible inflow.
• Significant damage to well-constructed metal storage building. Bent steel structural posts along with numerous snapped pines in surrounding area.

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

The middle part of June was unusually stormy across the area. Numerous rounds of strong to severe storms impacted the region with multiple squall lines that produced severe winds as well as supercells that produced large hail and tornadoes. Heavy rain also occurred over a multi-day period, which saturated the ground and led to some instances of flash flooding. ||The synoptic pattern featured well above average 250 mb zonal wind anomalies, which were traceable back to an active subtropical jet stream. Greater than average instability was also present, in part due to anomalously warm Gulf of Mexico SSTs. This combination of above average shear from the active subtropical jet and above average instability from the warmer than average SSTs provided a synoptic environment favorable for severe weather as upper level shortwaves moving through the area. This pattern persisted for many days, leading to an unusually large amount of severe weather.

A tornado touched down just east of the intersection of Odom Lane and Cedar Springs Lane south of Blakely. Several snapped pine trees were found, consistent with EF-1 damage. The tornado then crossed Georgia Highway 39 where several large branches were broken off. The top bar of a chain-link fence was pulled out and a wooden fence was also blown down in this area south of Blakely. The tornado then moved eastward, roughly paralleling south of Damascus Street, snapping and uprooting both hardwood and softwood trees. The tornado crossed Waller Road south of Damascus Street, causing significant roof damage to a single-family home as well as uprooting and snapping several trees nearby. A large area of snapped pine trees was spotted south of Damascus Street between Waller Road and Sandy Bottom Road. The tornado then turned slightly to the northeast, crossing the intersection of Damascus Street and Sandy Bottom Road. Here, the damage was consistent with EF-2 intensity. Significant roof damage was done to a single-family home and numerous hardwood and softwood trees were snapped in the area. The tornado continued northeastward toward Giles-Hightower Road near the intersection of Mays Ford Road. A barn's walls collapsed here along with many other snapped and uprooted trees. Tree damage continued to the northeast south of Mays Ford Road, generally consistent with EF-1 damage. More tree damage was observed along Old Damascus Road and Georgia Highway 45. The tornado turned a bit more northeastward and crossed Georgia Highway 216 where more snapped and uprooted trees were found. Another area of EF-2 damage was then observed along Quail Country Road in far northeast Early County. Large sheds were completely destroyed here with large swaths of pine trees snapped. A double-wide manufactured home lost its roof and a couple exterior walls. Damage cost was estimated.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:57 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:22 UTC and running to 22:41 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 16:26 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.

Blakely (BIJ), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Ft Rucker radar (KEOX), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:01 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

11 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.