TornadoLookup

Home / Georgia / Washington

EF0 tornado in Washington County, Georgia

Tornado May 20, 2008 · Washington County, Georgia

EF0
Rating
1.0 mi
Path length
50 yd
Path width
$2K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia concluded that a brief EF0 tornado touched down 1.5 miles northwest of Davisboro and traveled southeast on the ground for approximately one mile before lifting 0.5 miles northwest of Davisboro. The tornado had a maximum path width of 50 yards with maximum estimated wind speeds of 70 to 80 mph. Several trees were blown down along the path of the tornado, but no structural damage was observed or reported.

The wider storm

An active and very unstable northwest flow continued across the southeast United States as the polar vortex remained very strong in the northeast United States. A disturbance rotated around the back side of the upper low into the southeast United States during the afternoon and evening. Multiple complexes of severe thunderstorms developed across north and central Georgia during the mid to later afternoon as a result and moved southeast during the evening hours. Large hail was the primary severe weather element observed during this outbreak, however an EF2 tornado developed in Cherokee county and caused extensive damage to hundreds of homes. This was the 45th tornado of the spring season for north and central Georgia.

Began near Davisboro (32.9954, -82.6183).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 105600. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.