Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2025
EF0 tornado, Locust Grv Trpl H Ar to Locust Grove, Georgia, April 7, 2025
From Locust Grv Trpl H Ar to Locust Grove, this EF0 tornado ran 1.6 miles across Henry County on April 7, 2025, touching down at 7:48 AM EDT and reaching 75 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
- April 7, 2025
- Touchdown
- 7:48 AM EDT (11:48 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:50 AM EDT (11:50 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.6 miles (2.6 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Henry County
- Touchdown point
- 33.373, -84.157
- Lift-off point
- 33.378, -84.130
- Record number
- 2504070548-01
The damage survey
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 90 mph.
- Several trees snapped on east side of 75 in a clearing
- A couple trees snapped on both sides of the road
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 line of thunderstorms moved into northwest GA in the early morning hours of the 6th. Storms were weakening as instability continued to fall, however some portions of the line were able to develop stronger wind gusts. The line surged northward as the day progressed and delayed the arrival of the line for areas further south. This allowed for instability to redevelop. As the line moved into central GA, storms strengthened causing sporadic wind damage and two brief tornados (one in Columbus and one in Macon). The line of storms surged ahead of the incoming cold front and tapered off through the overnight hours. Storms then refired along the cold front (behind the initial line) during the morning hours of the 7th producing several rotations requiring tornado warnings in the southern CWA and a tornado which moved from Spalding to Henry county.
An EF0 Tornado with maximum winds of 70 to 75 mph touched down in|southern Henry County just west of Lester Mill Road at around|7:48 AM EDT on April 7, 2025. The tornado snapped a few trees|on both sides of the road and continued eastward crossing|I75 just south of the Bethlehem road overpass. Several trees on|the east side of the interstate were snapped. GDOT cameras at|the time the tornado passed showed the construction barrels being|tossed onto the interstate. Radar data also shows a brief Tornado Debris|signature in the area near the tree damage east of Lester Mill|Road and across I75. The tornado lifted at approximately|7:50 AM EDT just before reaching Hwy 23.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
28 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:20 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 12:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:20 UTC | 12:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | FFC |
| 11:52 UTC | 12:05 UTC | Tornado Warning | FFC |
| 12:02 UTC | 12:11 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:43 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
11.8 hours before the tornado, 33 km from the path. April 7, 2025.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -25024 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 624 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 56 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 53 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 121 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 12:00Z
0.2 hours after it, 33 km from the path. April 7, 2025.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 12 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -58 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 122 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 593 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 55 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 50 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 69 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- -0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.5 K/km
The radar
The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 39 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:45 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11:32 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Se Birdie | Spalding, GA | NWS survey confirms EF1 tornado with max winds of 90 mph. EMA confirms Total 26 structures - 9 affected, 12 minor, 5 major damage in Spalding County (2 total tornadoes). |
| 11:35 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Ene Vaughn | Spalding, GA | Survey crews noted significant tree damage along the north side of Heads Creek Reservoir associated with a tornado early Monday morning. |
| 11:39 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Sse Sunny Side | Spalding, GA | NWS survey confirms EF0 tornado with max winds of 80 mph. EMA confirms Total 26 structures - 9 affected, 12 minor, 5 major damage in Spalding County (2 total tornadoes). |
| 11:50 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Ne Luella | Henry, GA | Survey crews noted tree damage associated with a tornado that crossed Interstate 75 Monday morning. |
| 11:52 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Nw Locust Grove | Henry, GA | NWS Storm Survey confirms EF0 tornado with max winds of 75 mph. Tornado crossed I75 near Bethlehem Road. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 7, 2025
8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 7 | 6:46 AM EDT | EF0 | Early, GA | 7.4 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| April 7 | 7:22 AM EDT | EF1 | Fayette, GA | 13.9 | 250 | |||
| April 7 | 7:38 AM EDT | EF0 | Spalding, GA | 4.3 | 100 | |||
| April 7 | 11:02 AM EDT | EF1 | Grady, GA | 4.6 | 200 | $500,000 | ||
| April 7 | 11:27 AM EDT | EF1 | Colquitt, GA | 0.8 | 150 | $10,000 | ||
| April 7 | 11:27 AM EDT | EF1 | Leon, FL | 12.2 | 300 | $3,000 | ||
| April 7 | 11:23 AM CDT | EF1 | Leon, FL to GA | 8.6 | 150 | $100,000 | ||
| April 7 | 7:03 PM EDT | EF0 | Ware, GA | 1.7 | 20 |
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.