EF1 tornado, Marshall to Milldale, Georgia, April 3, 2024

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

April 3, 2024

Touchdown

4:49 AM EDT (08:49 UTC)

Lifted

4:56 AM EDT (08:56 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.5 miles (8.9 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Crisp County

Touchdown point

31.911, -83.922

Lift-off point

31.935, -83.833

Record number

2404030249-01

35 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 100 mph.

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

A Quasi-Linear Convective System moved through the area through the night of the 2nd into the morning of the 3rd. Convection across West Central GA was weaker with limited to no severe activity due to weaker CAPE values, however shear and helicity were plentiful. Convection in the early morning hours was able to organize into several messy supercells ahead of the line, as they tapped into a region of more ample CAPE and steep mid-level lapse rates. Several tornado warnings were issued with three confirmed tornados including a strong EF2 tornado in Rockdale County between Pine Mountain and Conyers.

A tornado touched down over Lake Blackshear with damage quickly occuring where Scenic Route meets North Cedar Creek Rd. Numerous trees, some large pines, were snapped near the base and uprooted as the tornado tracked along North Cedar Creek Rd toward South Coney Rd. Several homes received significant damage due to falling trees with some rood damage, mainly to tin roofs getting peeled back. Max winds estimated at 100 mph. The tornado continued to track northeast where it continued to snap smaller trees. A farm picot irrigation system was flipped near South Coney Rd. A few trees were also snaped along McKinney Rd and just north along GA Hwy 300. Another pivot was flipped between GA Hwy 300 and Pateville Rd with a few tops of trees seen snapped from aerial survey.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:44 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:08 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 05:07 UTC and running to 10:36 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 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.

Cordele (CKF), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:49 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 2024 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

3 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.