EF1 tornado, Tails Creek to Oak Hill, Georgia, May 8, 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

May 8, 2024

Touchdown

11:42 PM EDT (03:42 UTC)

Lifted

11:44 PM EDT (03:44 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Gilmer County

Touchdown point

34.664, -84.508

Lift-off point

34.666, -84.498

Record number

2405082142-01

58 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.

• 1/3 of building pulled up. Screws into metal base but not well anchored
• Tin roof from forestry building across the street thrown onto MHSW
• Tree on a residence. Other trees snapped or uprooted around property.
• trees on houses off Carson Cove Road and Weeks Road

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

Several waves of severe thunderstorms moved through the area from the evening hours of the 8th through the early afternoon hours of the 9th. Initial convection ahead of the first line was able to tap into ample shear to produce tornadic thunderstorms in Northwest GA. This threat transitioned more into a wind event as the first line moved through the morning of the 9th. This line continued southward into the metro causing sporadic wind damage. Thunderstorms weakened as they moved south of I20, however another line of severe made its way out of AL/TN, producing further wind damage in the North. The initial line slowly moved into the southern portion of the CWA where conditions were not as worked over and shear was stronger. Storms re-strengthened, with several producing brief tornados.

Aerial and ground surveys revealed a fairly significant yet brief|swath of damage on either side of Tails Creek Road (Hwy 282) from|a tornado. Most of the damage was to trees with hundreds of them|either snapped or uprooted in a path that was less than 1 mile.|Little to no additional reports of damage has been documented|beyond Woodridge Drive and Tails Creek Road/Hwy 282. Based on the|extent of the tree damage, confidence is high that max winds were|around 90 mph, making this a very brief EF-1 tornado.

Evidence of a tornado occurred very near the intersection of|Ellington Road and Old Highway 5 South, a little more than|2 miles south-southwest of Ellijay in Gilmer County. The tornado|destroyed parts of 2 single-story storage units (made of|tin/metal) as well as a Georgia Forestry building that houses|large equipment. Based on the damage at these locations, it is|estimated the tornado had wind speeds between 90-100 mph (EF-1).|As the tornado crossed Old Highway 5 South, additional minor roof|damage along with a few small to medium trees snapped. The last|of this damage was seen near the CSX Railroad just north of the|Progress Road and Casey Drive intersection. NOTE: this damage|**may** be part of a longer track tornado or multiple tornadoes|from the same complex of severe storms, but due to complex|terrain (difficulty accessing any roads in forested areas),|further investigation (by air) is currently happening. Updates|are likely in the next several days.

A northern circulation embedded within a relatively fast-moving|Quasi-linear Convective System (QLCS) spawned yet another short-|lived tornado across Gilmer County just before midnight on May|8th. This tornado touched down over the property of Little Brook|Farm #1 between two sets of chicken houses, with numerous trees|either snapped or uprooted. No notable structural damage was seen|around the chicken houses. Additional tree damage, some down on|homes, occurred as the tornado crossed Weeks Road and Carson Cove|Road. No further damage was seen beyond Wd Court. The damage was|indicative of high-end EF-0 (max winds 85 mph).

Another brief tornado likely associated with the same severe|storm that spawned the tornado across Ellington Road and Old Hwy|5, cut across Owltown Road, just east of Hwy 52E. Numerous trees|were either snapped or uprooted on either side of Owltown Road.|The tornado then produced more tree damage along Mt Zion Road|before no additional damage was seen.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:12 UTC and running to 08:00 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 Enhanced 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 01:42 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.

Ellijay (49A), 4 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 145 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:43 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

52 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.