Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 2025

EF0 tornado, Dot, Georgia, May 27, 2025

This EF0 tornado ran 1.6 miles across Carroll County on May 27, 2025, touching down at 4:22 AM EDT and reaching 125 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
May 27, 2025
Touchdown
4:22 AM EDT (08:22 UTC)
Lifted
4:24 AM EDT (08:24 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.6 miles (2.6 km)
Path width
125 yards (114 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Carroll County
Touchdown point
33.496, -85.283
Lift-off point
33.488, -85.257
Record number
2505270222-01

The damage survey

12 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.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front moved across central Georgia, interacting with the southern edge of the CAD wedge in the afternoon hours of the 27th. Storms near the intersection of the front and the wedge latched on to the resultant shear and generated several tornados in Carrol and Coweta counties.

A line of storms moved into Western GA during the afternoon of May|27 2025. An EF0 tornado with maximum winds of 75 mph developed |along the leading edge of the line along Saxon Road where a tree |was uprooted and numerous branches and debris was strewn across a |field. The tornado continued east crossing Fountain Road and Hwy |100 where several trees were uprooted. The tornado continued ESE |in a largely wooded region before crossing Reeseville Road where 2|trees were downed. The tornado weakened and lifted shortly after |crossing Reeseville road.

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

The warnings

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:01 UTC20:57 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchFFC
18:06 UTC18:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFFC
18:22 UTC18:41 UTCTornado WarningFFC
18:29 UTC18:56 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFFC
18:32 UTC18:46 UTCTornado WarningFFC
18:44 UTC19:16 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFFC

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:42 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 air that afternoon

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.

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 00:00Z

8.4 hours before the tornado, 73 km from the path. May 27, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 00:00Z on 2025-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 722 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 787 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 00:00Z on 2025-05-27The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -62 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
722 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1943 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
787 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-62 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
13 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.1
Supercell composite
-0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 12:00Z

3.6 hours after it, 73 km from the path. May 27, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 12:00Z on 2025-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 83 joules per kilogram, CIN -53, lifted condensation level 564 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 12:00Z on 2025-05-27The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 138 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
83 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-53 J/kg
Surface CAPE
11 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
564 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
138 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
237 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 67 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:22 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 27, 2025

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 272:29 AM EDTEF0Carroll, GA2.6150
May 273:08 AM EDTEF1Coweta, GA2.6150
May 274:47 PM MDTEF1Morgan, CO0.910
May 276:51 PM CDTEF0Madison, AL0.125

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.