EF1 tornado, Atwater, Georgia, June 25, 2025

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

June 25, 2025

Touchdown

1:10 AM EDT (05:10 UTC)

Lifted

1:16 AM EDT (05:16 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

3.5 miles (5.7 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Upson County

Touchdown point

32.974, -84.360

Lift-off point

32.975, -84.420

Record number

2506252310-01

13 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.

• Numerous trees snapped in a fairly forested area

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

Widespread afternoon and evening diurnal thunderstorms triggered across north and central Georgia. The outflow from these storms was strong enough to continue persistent thunderstorms through the midnight hours with concentrated pockets of wind damage. Two outflow boundaries which collided produced a zipper-like firing of thunderstorms which even produced a brief circulation and subsequent tornado which moved east to west in northwest Upson county.

At approximately 1:10 AM EDT on Thursday June 26, 2025 an EF1 |tornado touched down in northern Upson County with maximum winds |of 95-100mph. The tornado developed as a result of 2 colliding |outflow boundaries from storms moving southwest which moved into |Georgia from South Carolina and storms moving north originating |along the Florida gulf coast. The boundaries collided over |northern Upson County and generated enough low level shear that |the storms in the area were able to generate a short lived |tornado. The tornado first touched down in a field west of Day |Road near the intersection of Thompson Road. At the end of the |field was a grove of pine trees with several snapped off where the|tornado crossed into the wooded region. The tornado continued |west through a heavily wooded region before emerging out at |Atwater Road. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted on the east|side of Atwater around 2 homes. A large grove of hardwood trees |were mostly snapped which is where it is presumed the tornado |reached max intensity of 95 to 100mph winds. At approximately 1:10|to 1:11 AM and over this location is when the KFFC radar first |determined the presence of a TDS (tornado debris signature). The |tornado continued moving west along Atwater road snapping and |uprooting trees on both sides of the road. At approximately 1:12 |AM the tornado continued west along Weems Road snapping and |uprooting numerous trees on both sides of the road. The TDS |continued through the 1:15 AM scan over a mostly wooded region |west of Weems road where the tornado is presumed lifted at |approximately 1:16AM as a result of no damages being observed west|of the heavily wooded region. The exact end of path is estimated |without an areal survey. We would like to thank Upson County |Emergency Management and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency |for their assistance with the survey.

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 02:00 UTC and running to 07:09 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. The outlook in force was issued at 01:04 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.

Thomaston (OPN), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:09 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

15 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.