EF0 tornado, Trimble, Georgia, February 16, 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

February 16, 2025

Touchdown

4:25 AM EST (09:25 UTC)

Lifted

4:27 AM EST (09:27 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Troup County

Touchdown point

33.220, -84.890

Lift-off point

33.220, -84.860

Record number

2502160325-01

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Very weak TDS seen from KFFC at this location
• Public report of "hundreds" of trees down in this area. Correlates with weak TDS. Further investigation occurring with Troup County EMA (2/19).
• Possible tornado (end of track?)

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

A strong cold front moved across the region during the early morning hours of Sunday the 16th. Modest instability and strong shear meant the main hazards were damaging winds and tornadoes. Several brief spin-up tornadoes were produced on the south side of the Atlanta metro, however the most widespread damage was along the I20 corridor where there were straight line winds near 70 mph. Sadly there was one fatality from a tree on a home in Fulton County.

An EF0 tornado with maximum winds of 85 mph touched down in northeastern Troup County February 15, 2025 at 4:25AM EST. The tornado spun up within a strong line of storms moving rapidly eastward through Alabama and into Western Georgia in the early in the morning hours Sunday Feb 15. The tornado first touched down on private property in the 9000 block of Hogansville Road or Hwy 29. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted on the property approximately 1/3 of a mile north of Hwy 29. Additionally, a weak Tornado Debris Signature (TDS) briefly appeared on KFFC in this location around 4:26 AM further confirming the presence of a weak tornado. The tornado continued east through mainly a heavily wooded area north of Hwy 29 and crossing Hwy 29 near the intersection of Buck Smith Road where mostly minor tree damage occurred. The tornado did impact 1 structure however, a Barndominium, just west of Minnie Sewell Road where much of the metal roof was torn off and tossed into nearby trees. The tornado lifted as it approached Minnie Sewell Road.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:02 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:05 UTC and running to 11:04 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.

Newnan Coweta County Airport (CCO), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 33 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:25 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 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.