EF0 tornado, Oak Hill, Georgia, May 3, 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 3, 2025

Touchdown

9:02 PM EDT (01:02 UTC)

Lifted

9:05 PM EDT (01:05 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.9 miles (3.1 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$4,000

County

Newton County

Touchdown point

33.539, -84.032

Lift-off point

33.543, -83.996

Record number

2505031902-01

4 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 75 mph.

• Tree downed in yard. Branches and other debris present

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

A QLCS moved through North and Central Georgia in the afternoon and evening hours of the 3rd. The line initially posed a robust wind threat with measured wind gusts of near 70 mph. As the line moved across central Georgia cells in the warm sector merged with the line initiating numerous quick spin-up tornadoes and requiring at least 10 tornado warnings. Many of the rotational signatures were shallow and only visible from the TATL radar.

An EF0 tornado with maximum winds of 75 mph touched down in|Western Newton County Saturday evening May 3 2025 at|approximately 902PM EDT. The tornado formed within a strong|line of thunderstorms which moved through much of north and|Central GA that Saturday Evening. The tornado touched down just|inside the Rockdale Newton County line along Buckingham Drive|where a couple trees were downed and significant leaf debris was|noted. The storm continued east downing a few trees along Hwy|20 near the intersection of Oak Hill Road. The tornado snapped|2 trees along Hwy 212 as it continued east and weakening. The|tornado lifted in the area near Tara Way and Oakhill road.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:01 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:21 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:38 UTC and running to 02:22 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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.

Covington (CVC), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 55 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:00 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

7 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.