Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2023
EF0 tornado, Myricks Mill, Georgia, March 27, 2023
This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Twiggs County on March 27, 2023, touching down at 8:52 AM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF0
- Date
- March 27, 2023
- Touchdown
- 8:52 AM EDT (12:52 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:53 AM EDT (12:53 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.5 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Twiggs County
- Touchdown point
- 32.879, -83.423
- Lift-off point
- 32.879, -83.417
- Record number
- 2303270652-01
The damage survey
1 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.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A prolonged, active weather pattern persisted across Georgia through late March, culminating in a series of disturbances that impacted the region March 25th through March 28th. In addition to numerous reports of damaging winds, hail and a few tornadoes, extreme rainfall amounts caused flash flooding over portions of the state. A swath of 4 or more inches of rain stretched from LaGrange, to Forsyth, to Augusta, with isolated amounts above 10 inches.
A EF0 tornado briefly touched just east of Mountain Springs Church Road in northern Twiggs County. The tornado snapped and uprooted trees behind a home along the road and blew siding off of a home next to a main power line running through the area. Several trees were snapped and uprooted on either side of the clearing for the powerlines. The tornado quickly lifted within a heavily forested area shortly after touching down.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
0 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:52 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:00 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 11:29 UTC and running to 15:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC | 14:32 UTC | Flood Warning | FFC |
| 03:43 UTC | 07:24 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | FFC |
| 11:12 UTC | 11:48 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC |
| 11:29 UTC | 15:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | FFC |
| 12:34 UTC | 13:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC |
| 12:52 UTC | 13:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | FFC |
| 13:15 UTC | 18:44 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | FFC |
| 15:02 UTC | 16:26 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | FFC |
| 15:41 UTC | 16:02 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC |
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 forecast that day
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 05:52 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 air that afternoon
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.
Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 00:00Z
11.1 hours after it, 114 km from the path. March 28, 2023.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -83101 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2506 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 59 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 9 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 17 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 31 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.4 K/km
The surface observations
Macon/Lewis Wilson (MCN), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:53 UTC | 66 | 65 | 160° 9 kt | 1013.2 | VCTS | |
| 10:55 UTC | 170° 9 kt | 1013.2 | ||||
| 11:00 UTC | 66 | 65 | 170° 8 kt | 1013.5 | TS | |
| 11:00 UTC | 170° 8 kt | 1013.5 | ||||
| 11:05 UTC | 170° 9 kt | 14 | 1013.9 | |||
| 11:10 UTC | 220° 5 kt | 1014.6 | ||||
| 11:15 UTC | 230° 4 kt | 1014.9 | ||||
| 11:15 UTC | 67 | 65 | 230° 4 kt | 1014.9 | VCTS | |
| 11:20 UTC | 220° 4 kt | 1014.9 | ||||
| 11:25 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1014.9 | ||||
| 11:29 UTC | 67 | 65 | 0° 0 kt | 1014.9 | ||
| 11:30 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1015.2 | ||||
| 11:35 UTC | 10° 5 kt | 1015.2 | ||||
| 11:40 UTC | 10° 5 kt | 1015.2 | ||||
| 11:45 UTC | 30° 4 kt | 1014.9 | ||||
| 11:49 UTC | 66.2 | 64.4 | 60° 5 kt | 1014.9 | ||
| 11:50 UTC | 70° 5 kt | 1014.9 | ||||
| 11:53 UTC | 67 | 65 | 80° 5 kt | 1014.9 | ||
| 11:55 UTC | 80° 5 kt | 1014.9 | ||||
| 12:00 UTC | 80° 4 kt | 1014.9 | ||||
| 12:02 UTC | 67 | 65 | 100° 5 kt | 1014.9 | ||
| 12:05 UTC | 110° 5 kt | 1014.2 | ||||
| 12:10 UTC | 130° 7 kt | 1013.9 | ||||
| 12:15 UTC | 130° 5 kt | 1013.9 | ||||
| 12:20 UTC | 120° 5 kt | 1013.9 | ||||
| 12:25 UTC | 140° 5 kt | 1013.9 | ||||
| 12:28 UTC | 67 | 65 | 160° 3 kt | 1014.2 | VCTS | |
| 12:30 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1014.2 | ||||
| 12:35 UTC | 160° 2 kt | 1014.9 | ||||
| 12:40 UTC | 330° 2 kt | 1015.6 | ||||
| 12:45 UTC | 13 kt | 18 | 1016.3 | |||
| 12:50 UTC | 17 kt | 1016.3 | ||||
| 12:53 UTC | 66 | 62 | 10° 12 kt | 21 | 1015.9 | VCTS |
| 12:55 UTC | 350° 11 kt | 1015.2 | ||||
| 13:00 UTC | 340° 5 kt | 1015.9 | ||||
| 13:05 UTC | 11 kt | 17 | 1015.9 | |||
| 13:10 UTC | 360° 8 kt | 1015.9 | ||||
| 13:15 UTC | 60° 5 kt | 1015.9 | ||||
| 13:20 UTC | 50° 7 kt | 1015.6 | ||||
| 13:25 UTC | 60° 9 kt | 1015.6 | ||||
| 13:27 UTC | 65 | 62 | 70° 9 kt | 1015.6 | ||
| 13:30 UTC | 70° 5 kt | 1015.2 | ||||
| 13:35 UTC | 80° 7 kt | 1014.9 | ||||
| 13:40 UTC | 120° 8 kt | 1015.2 | ||||
| 13:45 UTC | 360° 4 kt | 1014.9 | ||||
| 13:50 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1014.9 | ||||
| 13:53 UTC | 65 | 63 | 100° 5 kt | 1014.9 | VCTS | |
| 13:55 UTC | 120° 2 kt | 1014.9 | ||||
| 14:00 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1015.2 | ||||
| 14:05 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1015.2 | ||||
| 14:10 UTC | 10° 4 kt | 1015.2 | ||||
| 14:15 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1015.6 | ||||
| 14:20 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1015.9 | -RA BR | |||
| 14:21 UTC | 65 | 63 | 0° 0 kt | 1015.9 | VCTS -RA BR | |
| 14:25 UTC | 1015.9 | +RA BR | ||||
| 14:30 UTC | 330° 7 kt | 1015.9 | RA BR | |||
| 14:31 UTC | 65 | 63 | 340° 6 kt | 1015.9 | TSRA BR | |
| 14:35 UTC | 310° 4 kt | 1015.6 | RA BR | |||
| 14:40 UTC | 330° 5 kt | 1015.9 | -RA BR | |||
| 14:45 UTC | 340° 4 kt | 1015.6 | -RA BR | |||
| 14:48 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 0° 0 kt | 1015.9 | VCTS RA BR | |
| 14:50 UTC | 290° 2 kt | 1016.3 | +RA BR |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 24 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:50 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11:21 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Se Griswoldville | Twiggs, GA | SEVERAL TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN ON RIDGE RD., KNIGHT RD., DONNA RD., AND HOWARD RD. |
| 12:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Macon | Bibb, GA | LARGE TREE DOWN AND VEHICLE DAMAGED AT MERCER UNIVERSITY DRIVE ON MERCER UNIVERSITY CAMPUS. |
| 12:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Nw Cross Keys | Bibb, GA | MULTIPLE TREES DOWN ON EASTVIEW AVE AND SHURLING DRIVE IN MACON GA. POWERLINES DOWN AND ROADWAY BLOCKED. |
| 12:52 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Se Mountain Springs | Twiggs, GA | A BRIEF EF-0 TORNADO WITH MAX WINDS OF 80 MPH TOUCHED DOWN IN NORTHERN TWIGGS COUNTY. SEVERAL TREES WERE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED, AND SIDING WAS REMOVED FROM A HOME BEFORE THE TORNADO LIFTED. |
| 12:57 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Juliette | Monroe, GA | SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT OF FLOODED RESIDENTIAL DRIVEWAY. |
| 15:20 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 1 N Macon | Bibb, GA | 2 FEET OF WATER WITH A VEHICLE STALLED AT THE ON RAMP FOR I-75. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2023 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of March 27, 2023
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.