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F2 tornado in Liberty County, Georgia

Tornado April 9, 1998 · Liberty County, Georgia

Rating

19.5 mi

Whole path

400 yd

Path width

Deaths

Injuries

$38.2M

Damage as recorded

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

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 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.

What the National Weather Service wrote

F2 tornado moved from Long County into Liberty County, which encompasses much of Fort Stewart Army Base. One soldier was killed while in an administrative building and seven others were injured. Seven buildings were destroyed while another fifty-five(55) suffered different degrees of damage.

Began near Hinesville (31.8500, -81.7300).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

F1 Bryan County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5638672. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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