EF1 tornado, Lakeview to Heard, 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

6:56 AM EDT (10:56 UTC)

Lifted

7:00 AM EDT (11:00 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

3.3 miles (5.3 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Peach and Houston counties

Touchdown point

32.539, -83.756

Lift-off point

32.549, -83.701

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. The feature that had generated a tornado in Macon County regenerated a tornado as it moved into eastern Peach County.

The tornado first touched down south of hwy 96 and west of Lakeview drive snapping and uprooting trees. Several homes sustained damage along Lakeview

drive from falling trees indicative of low to mid range EF1 damage. Similarly, one home had its garage door blown in and siding/shingle damage indicative of low end EF1 damage. The tornado continued east crossing I75 snapping and uprooting trees. Damage to several metal buildings was noted just east of I75 as it tracked East-northeast across hwy 96. Numerous powerpoles were snapped along the south side of hwy 96 and numerous trees were snapped or uprooted north of hwy 96. Several structures on the north side

of hwy 96 sustained damage including portions of the roof removed, windows broken or doors blown in consistent with EF1 type winds. The tornado continued east along hwy 96

snapping and uprooting trees along the north side of the hwy. The tornado crossed Brantley ridge snapping a few trees and began to weaken as it continued east finally

lifting before it reached Lake Joy Road.

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

35 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 111 mph.

• Anchors pulled from ground
• a couple trees sporadically downed

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.

The storm that had generated a tornado in Macon County regenerated a tornado as|it moved into eastern Peach County. The tornado first touched down south of Hwy 96 and west of Lakeview drive snapping and uprooting trees. Several homes sustained damage along Lakeview Drive from falling trees indicative of low-to-mid-range EF1 damage. Similarly, one home had its garage door blown in and siding/shingle damage indicative of low end EF1 damage. The tornado continued east crossing I-75 snapping and uprooting trees. Damage to several metal buildings was noted just east of I-75 as|it tracked across Hwy 96. Numerous power poles were snapped along the south side of Hwy 96 and numerous trees were snapped or uprooted north of Hwy 96. Several structures on the north side of Hwy 96 sustained damage including portions of|the roof removed, windows broken or doors blown in consistent with EF1 type winds. The tornado continued east along Hwy 96 snapping and uprooting trees along the north side of the highway. The tornado crossed Brantley ridge snapping a few trees and began to weaken as it continued east finally lifting before it reached|Lake Joy Road.

This tornado continued briefly from Peach County crossing Hwy 41 just north of GA Hwy 96 East (county line). Most of the remaining damage was just a few trees snapped or uprooted but indicative of low-end EF1 damage.||The tornado continued east along Hwy 96 snapping and uprooting trees along the north side of the highway. The tornado crossed Brantley ridge snapping a few trees and began to weaken as it continued east finally lifting before it reached Lake Joy Road.

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

16 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:40 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:05 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), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:59 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.