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EF3 tornado in Thomas County, Georgia

Tornado February 19, 2009 · Thomas County, Georgia

EF3
Rating
1.4 mi
Path length
500 yd
Path width
$100K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 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

The same supercell which spawned the EF-2 tornado near Thomasville produced another tornado, which touched down along Five Forks Road about two miles north of U.S. Highway 84. Numerous trees were snapped or twisted. Many power lines were down and several county roads were impassible due to fallen debris. The tornado was rated an EF-3 based on the debarked trees on the east side of Salem Road. The tornado lifted before crossing State Road 33.

The wider storm

Just after midnight on the 19th, a long track supercell thunderstorm spawned an EF-2 tornado south of Cairo in Grady County. The tornado raced to the east into Thomas County, causing EF-2 damage just south of Thomasville. A second tornado developed and produced EF-3 damage near Boston.

Began near Eason (30.8239, -83.7993).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Grady County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 154853. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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