EF1 tornado, Fortsonia to Mt Carmel, Georgia, June 9, 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 9, 2025

Touchdown

6:09 PM CDT (23:09 UTC)

Lifted

6:11 PM CDT (23:11 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.5 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

Counties

McCormick and Elbert counties

Touchdown point

33.973, -82.585

Lift-off point

33.975, -82.569

Record number

2506091709-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CAE and NWS GSP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

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

Scattered thunderstorms developed across north Georgia during the afternoon and evening. One of the storms produced a brief, weak tornado as it moved over extreme southeast Elbert County during the evening.

The same slow moving long wave trough caused severe weather on preceding days helped trigger and organize another broken line of severe convection in the Midlands of SC on June 9th. Sufficient low level shear and strong instability helped produce two tornadoes along with a swath of scattered damaging winds into the central Midlands.

NWS storm survey found a brief tornado touched down in Bobby Brown State Park, downing trees across Bobby Brown State Park Road before intensifying as it crossed Ranger Road. Dozens of trees were snapped and uprooted as the tornado approached a cove along the Savannah River. Some structural damage to pavilions occurred at the Bobby Brown Recreational Center before the tornado crossed the Savannah River into McCormick County, SC just east of Ranger Dr.

An NWS Greenville-Spartanburg storm survey confirmed a brief tornado touched down in Bobby Brown State Park in Elbert County, downing trees across Bobby Brown State Park Road and intensifying as it crossed Ranger Road. Dozens of trees were snapped and uprooted as the tornado approached a cove along the Savannah River. Some structural damage to pavilions occurred at the Bobby Brown Recreational Center. Tree damage was observed across the river in McCormick County SC, with some uprooted trees and large limbs broken. It is unknown how far into McCormick County the tornado may have traveled due to lack of roads on US Army Corps of Engineers property.

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.

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 19:59 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.

The Greer radar (KGSP), 106 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:07 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

6 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.