EF0 tornado, Girard, Georgia, March 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

March 16, 2025

Touchdown

7:01 AM EDT (11:01 UTC)

Lifted

7:04 AM EDT (11:04 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

3.1 miles (5.0 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Burke County

Touchdown point

33.029, -81.655

Lift-off point

33.056, -81.611

Record number

2503160501-01

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

• Top of tree snapped off, a lot of pine debris.
• Several snapped pine trees.
• Several snapped pone trees.
• Several pine trees snapped or uprooted.

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

A surface low drifted into Great Lakes region with a cold front and line of convection nearing the forecast area by the early morning hours. Very strong shear dominated throughout the event with instability rather meager. The line of convection moved across the area from the west between 11z and 18-19z, bringing multiple reports of straight line wind damage but with the shear profile in place, two EF-0 tornadoes were confirmed in Burke county Georgia. No injuries were reported with these tornadoes with tree damage being the primary indicator for each tornado.

A National Weather Service storm survey determined that one of two close proximity EF-0 tornadoes touched down east of Girard, GA with peak wind speeds of 80 mph. The northernmost tornado began near the intersection of Stoney Bluff Road and Thankful Church Road where it snapped several pine trees. The tornado then continued northeast into an inaccessible heavily wooded area, before snapping additional pine trees along River Road. Given a lack of access, this tornado is assumed to have dissipated just prior to reaching the Savannah River.

National Weather Service storm survey determined one of two close proximity tornadoes touched down east Girard. The southern most of these two tornadoes began along Royal Road just north of Stoney Bluff Road causing minor tree damage. Moving northeast, the tornado caused shingle damage to a residence followed by additional tree damage along Royal Road. Given a lack of access, this tornado is assumed to have dissipated just prior to reaching the Savannah River.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS CAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:55 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:19 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 06:18 UTC and running to 13:36 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 05:24 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.

Barnwell (BNL), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:01 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

14 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.