EF0 tornado, Waycross, Georgia, April 7, 2025

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   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

EF0

Date

April 7, 2025

Touchdown

7:03 PM EDT (23:03 UTC)

Lifted

7:08 PM EDT (23:08 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

1.7 miles (2.8 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Ware County

Touchdown point

31.214, -82.346

Lift-off point

31.229, -82.323

Record number

2504071703-01

13 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 88 mph.

• Softwood trees knocked down, partial roof loss
• Decayed and hallowed tree uprooted
• Young pine knocked over and uprooted
• Several hardwood trees uprooted

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

Pre-front thunderstorms moved across an unstable airmass during the afternoon and evening as a strong 500 mb 55-70 kt jet moved across the area providing additional dynamical support and enhanced unidirectional shear.

Around 7:03 PM EDT, an EF0 tornado touched down in Waycross, GA|beginning near Magnolia St and Clifton Grove St. As the tornado|trekked northeastward, it caused large softwood trees to either|snap near the base of their trunk or snap large branches that|ultimately fell on homes. The fallen tree branches damaged roofs,|gutters and/or siding to homes along Holly St, Euclid Ave, and|Camellia Dr. Multiple large hardwood trees were uprooted and some|damaged nearby fences along Laurel St, Shadow Lawn, Baltimore Ave,|and Jasmine Cir. Damaging winds caused the partial loss of|shingles to homes along Camellia Dr and Jasmine Cir. The tornado|dissipated just north of Jasmine Cir near Caney branch stream|around 7:08 PM EDT.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:01 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:11 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:27 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.

Waycross/Ware Co. (AYS), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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 2025 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

8 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.