EF0 tornado, DeKalb County, Georgia, March 16, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF0, preliminary

Date

March 16, 2026

Touchdown

6:11 AM EDT (10:11 UTC)

Path length

2.8 miles (4.5 km)

Path width

135 yards (123 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

DeKalb County

Touchdown point

33.678, -84.211

Lift-off point

33.677, -84.163

Highest wind the damage implies

75 mph

Surveyed by

NWS FFC

Survey last edited

March 17, 2026

Record number

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

An EF0 spun up in southeast Dekalb County within a line of storms moving through the region at 6:10 AM EDT on March 16, 2026.

The tornado first touched down near the Snapfinger community in a wooded region west of Tarragon Dr. The tornado uprooted a tree onto a home

along Tarragon drive trapping a teenager in the 2nd floor bedroom. As the tornado continued east, leaf debris and limbs were observed until

the tornado crossed hwy 155 and hwy 212 where a couple trees were snapped near the intersection of 212 and Framingham Dr. The tornado then crossed into the Valley

Oaks neighborhood where numerous trees were uprooted or snapped, including 2 onto homes in the neighborhood along Gracehill Road and Oak Run Dr. Both homeowners

were home when the trees crashed in including 1 narrowly missing them while in the bed. The tornado continued east snapping trees along Valley Oaks Road and

along Salem road near the intersection of Panola Road. A tree was downed along Miles E Fowler PKwy and roof damage was observed to a home on Salem Springs Pl. A small tree

was snapped on Walnut Ct before the tornado lifted as it crossed Salem road near the intersection of Hunters Pace Dr. Damage along the entirety of the path of this tornado was intermittent suggesting that the tornado was consistently regenerating along the path.

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

19 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 76 mph.

• Tree onto house News story about boy climbing out

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

1 minute of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:10 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 08:11 UTC and running to 10:47 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. The outlook in force was issued at 05:26 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.

Atlanta International Airport (ATL), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:07 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

10 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.