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EF3 tornado in Burke County, Georgia

Tornado April 10, 2009 · Burke County, Georgia

EF3
Rating
26.3 mi
Path length
880 yd
Path width
4
Injuries
$3.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 880 yards (0.50 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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

An supercell tornado tracked across Burke county and severely damaged several homes and buildings. Numerous trees and powerlines were damaged. There was one critical injury and several other minor injuries.

The wider storm

Supercell thunderstorms moved across the CSRA and produced large tornadoes. One tornado tracked across Columbia and Richmond counties then went into Aiken county South Carolina along highway 278. The second tornado tracked across Burke county then into lower Barnwell and Allendale counties in South Carolina. Several homes were destroyed and many had moderate to severe damage. Widespread trees and powerlines were also down. Total damage estimate was 3 million dollars.

Began near Torbit Station (33.1200, -82.1910).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 154425. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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