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F1 tornado in Laurens County, Georgia

Tornado November 8, 1996 · Laurens County, Georgia

Rating

8.0 mi

Whole path

50 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$250K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Dodge County → Laurens County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

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 F1 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F1 meant moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken; the scale paired it with winds of 73–112 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

The wider storm

The tornado may have lifted back up just inside the Laurens county line but a second mobile home in Dodge county was destroyed by undetermined wind damage. A narrow wind damage path connected the two mobile homes that were destroyed. The second home was tied down. The frame and floor stayed put but everything else was spread downwind in a widening pattern similar to straight-line winds.

Began near Dexter (32.4300, -83.1200).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5573198. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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