F2 tornado — Cobb County, Georgia

F2 tornado in Cobb County, Georgia

Tornado April 8, 1998 · Cobb County, Georgia

Rating

3.5 mi

Whole path

200 yd

Path width

Injuries

$25.0M

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 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

The same supercell that had tracked from Alabama across Haralson and Paulding counties spawned another tornado in Smyrna. The touchdown was along Windy Hill Road just west of Cobb Parkway where a commercial building sustained heavy damage. A filling station and car dealership less than a block east also sustained heavy damage. There was $500,000 to $750,000 in damage to new cars. Trees over a foot in diameter were snapped or uprooted. In total, 59 buildings were damaged, but no injuries were reported. Aerial and ground surveys by NWS employees showed the path varied from 100 to 200 yards wide with a length of about 3 miles. The tornado crossed just into Fulton county near I-285 and the Chattahoochee River. Dime to quarter size hail and other wind damage were also reported in north and central Cobb county.

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5639751. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

F2 tornado in Cobb County, Georgia

What the National Weather Service wrote

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

Tornadoes near your address