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F3 tornado in Bryan County, Georgia

Tornado April 9, 1998 · Bryan County, Georgia

F3
Rating
16.0 mi
Whole path
440 yd
Path width
2
Deaths
17
Injuries
$2.7M
Damage as recorded

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

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 440 yards (0.25 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F3 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F3 meant severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned; the scale paired it with winds of 158–206 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

Tornado first touched down just northeast of Pembroke and then crossed I-16 at the Olive Branch Road overpass (about 2 miles west of exit 29) then continued northeast. Significant damage occurred in the Olive Branch Rd. area and also just north of Blitchton, where a 38 year-old female and a 41 year old male were killed along with 15 injured. There were seventy-four (74) homes and other buildiings damaged, with fourteen of those destroyed (6 mobile homes, two frame houses, two brick homes, and four other buildings. Numerous trees were uprooted or snapped off 10 to 15 feet above the ground.

Began near Pembroke (32.1700, -81.5800).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5639378. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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