EF1 tornado, Rivoli to Payne City, Georgia, March 12, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

March 12, 2026

Touchdown

6:46 AM EDT (10:46 UTC)

Lifted

6:50 AM EDT (10:50 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.5 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Bibb County

Touchdown point

32.847, -83.764

Lift-off point

32.852, -83.706

Highest wind the damage implies

100 mph

Surveyed by

NWS FFC

Survey last edited

March 13, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

A line of storms moved through the region in the early morning hours of March 12, 2026. Several tornadoes were spawned along the line as it moved

east through Central GA. A tornado spawned just west of hwy 74 or Mercer University Drive near Windy Hill Drive where several trees were snapped and

uprooted. The tornado continued east crossing Mercer University drive snapping trees and entering a neighborhood where numerous home sustained damage along

McCleary Lane and Lochewolde Dr. The most severe damage to homes included broken windows, garage doors being blown in, portions of the roof removed, and entire

sections of shingles removed which is consistent with EF1 damage. The tornado continued east crossing Tucker road snapping and uprooting trees. One of the more interesting damage indicators was a large electrical transmission pole which was knocked over and bent across Tucker Road. This would normally have yielded a higher rating, however, upon inspection, a very large tree had fallen into the pole and initiated its collapse. Its also likely that debris had struck the pole given the large number of trees downed nearby. The tornado crossed I475 and into a largely wooded area before crossing North Mumford road snapping and uprooting trees. The tornado reached peak intensity of EF1 with max winds of 100mph between Mercer University Road and I475. The tornado continued ENE toward Wolf Creek before lifting as it approached The Highlands community.

Written by NWS FFC in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

17 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 105 mph.

• 6 hardwood trees uprooted, several other smaller ones snapped
• One small tree snapped. End point.

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

A strong cold front and associated QLCS system moved through central Georgia in the early morning hours of the 12th. Storms within the line were able to produce a few spots of wind damage, however the main hazard ended up being the numerous short lived and brief spin-up tornados which occurred in central Georgia. The strongest tornado was an EF2 near Marshallville.

A tornado spawned just west of Hwy 74 or Mercer University Drive near Windy Hill|Drive where several trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado continued east crossing Mercer University drive snapping trees and entering a neighborhood where numerous home sustained damage along McCleary Lane and Lochewolde Dr. The most severe damage to homes included broken windows, garage doors being blown in, portions of the roof removed, and entire sections of shingles removed which is consistent with EF1 damage. The tornado continued east crossing Tucker road snapping and uprooting trees. One of the more interesting damage indicators was a large electrical transmission pole which was knocked over and bent across Tucker Road. This would normally have yielded a higher rating, however, upon inspection, a very large tree had fallen into the pole and initiated its collapse. It is also likely that debris had struck the pole given the large number of trees downed nearby. The tornado crossed I-475 and into a largely wooded area before crossing North Mumford road snapping and|uprooting trees. The tornado reached peak intensity of EF1 with max winds of 100mph between Mercer University Road and I-475. The tornado continued ENE toward Wolf Creek before lifting as it approached The Highlands community.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:46 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 04:33 UTC and running to 11:34 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 05:31 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 Robins AFB radar (KJGX), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:46 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 2026 tornado in GeorgiaEvery tornado in Georgia since 1950Warnings in force in Georgia nowThe forecast where you are

23 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.