EF1 tornado, Blackwells to Sandy Plains, Georgia, December 29, 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

December 29, 2024

Touchdown

4:40 AM EST (09:40 UTC)

Lifted

4:41 AM EST (09:41 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$50,000

County

Cobb County

Touchdown point

34.033, -84.489

Lift-off point

34.034, -84.485

Record number

2412290340-01

31 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 95 mph.

• Small dogwood tree snapped
• Partial uproot of hardwood, branches broken higher up on another tree, which fell on the roof of a home.
• One hardwood tree uprooted with another partially uprooted
• Several trees uprooted with a few trunks snapped. Trees fell on the roof of one home and caused considerable structural damage to the roof, siding, and frame of another.

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

A QLCS (squall-line) moved through North and Central Georgia in the overnight hours of the 29th and 30th. There was high uncertainty as to how far into the state severe conditions could reach given the presence of weakening Cold-Air Damming (CAD) as far west as the ATL metro. Several storms produced sustained damaging winds. Storm surveys and radar analysis determined there were 6 tornadoes overnight, including 3 EF-1 and 3 EF-0. The longest tornado damage track was from an EF-1 in Meriwether County that produced damage along a 24-mile path. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted with a number of trees also falling on and damaging homes, vehicles, and other structures.

A brief EF1 tornado damaged approximately a dozen homes from numerous large trees that fell on them. Most of the damage occurred on Corral Dr. One home was nearly destroyed by a large pine tree and caused 2 injuries.

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 06:54 UTC and running to 10:39 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 05:59 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.

Marietta (RYY), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 75 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:40 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

30 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.