EF0 tornado, Blackwood to Farmville, Georgia, May 20, 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

May 20, 2025

Touchdown

11:43 PM EDT (03:43 UTC)

Lifted

11:47 PM EDT (03:47 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.4 miles (3.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Gordon County

Touchdown point

34.454, -84.872

Lift-off point

34.439, -84.835

Record number

2505202143-01

31 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 90 mph.

• Possible tornado. Reports from EM said multiple trees down in this small area with a pontoon boat flipped over and pulled back in the opposite direction of the storm motion.
• several small trees uprooted.

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

A loosely organized line of thunderstorms and supercells moved into northwest Georgia during the late evening hours of the 20th. Strong outflow interactions required numerous tornado warnings with multiple reports of winds over 60mph. Storms weakened slightly as they moved through the metro Atlanta, however a couple strong cells redeveloped in the early morning hours of the 21st southeast of the metro. These cells produced large hail, damaging winds, and even a brief tornado.

An EF0 tornado touched down late Tuesday evening at 1142 PM EDT|in Gordon County to the southeast of Calhoun Along Plainview Road|SE where several large trees where uprooted including one onto a|home. The tornado continued to the Northeast crossing Blalock Rd|remaining south of Erwin Hill Road before crossing Shope Lake|Road and Cornelison Road where several trees were snapped and|uprooted. Further to the east along Cornelison Road, roofing|from a section of a chicken house was torn off. The tornado|continued northeast and impacting a neighborhood along Windy|Hills Lane and Windy Hill Dr where numerous trees were snapped or|uprooted, including several onto homes. A roof and siding was|removed from a manufactured home, a pontoon boat was flipped, and|2 small sheds were destroyed. The tornado crossed Folsom Road|SE and and lifted before reaching Yarborough Mill Road. It|should be noted that the Hytop radar was down during this time|and the Peachtree City radar had the best view of the storm. |Radar data suggests the presence of a larger mesocyclone with|storm which originated as a supercell storm in AL evolving into a|hybrid supercell/QLCS storm into GA. This particular tornado|appears to be 1 of 2 which likely occurred in this area as part|of this larger mesocyclone and can be discerned in both the data|on the ground and from the KFFC radar. This tornado was best|aligned with the strongest portion of the mesocyclone.

An EF0 tornado touched down late Tuesday evening at 1143 PM EDT|in Gordon County to the southeast of Calhoun near the|intersection of Hwy 53 and Foster Lusk Road. The tornado|uprooted a few small trees and continued ESE crossing|HWY53 destroying a pole barn on the south side of Hwy53 just past|Plainview Road. Debris from the barn was scattered approximately|150 yards to the east and a few trees were snapped in the area. |The tornado continued east snapping and uprooting several trees|along Erwin Road SE, including one on a home. A barn along Erwin|Road SE lost its roof and one of the walls was blown out as well.|The tornado continued ESE into a neighborhood along Rosewood Dr|where several trees where snapped and numerous branches were|scattered around. The tornado weakened as it crossed Erwin Hill|Road SE. It should be noted that the Hytop radar was down|during this time and the Peachtree City radar had the best view|of the storm. Radar data suggests the presence of a larger|mesocyclone with storm which originated as a supercell storm in|AL evolving into a hybrid supercell/QLCS storm into GA. This|particular tornado appears to be 1 of 2 which likely occurred in|this area as part of this larger mesocyclone and can be discerned|in both the data on the ground and from the KFFC radar.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:15 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:31 UTC and running to 05:52 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:50 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 Atlanta radar (KFFC), 123 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:42 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

38 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.