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EF2 tornado in Burke County, Georgia

Tornado March 15, 2008 · Burke County, Georgia

EF2

Rating

22.1 mi

Whole path

880 yd

Path width

$500K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 880 yards (0.50 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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

A supercell spawned a tornado over Wrens in Jefferson county which moved across northern Burke county. It destroyed a church, a mobile home, and a large portion of a dairy farming business and damaged other homes and mobile homes. Numerous trees and powerlines were down.

The wider storm

Three supercells tracked across portions of the GA CSRA and produce multiple long-lived tornadoes that produced significant damage.

Began near Keysville (33.2080, -82.2400).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

4 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 Columbia County EF1 Burke County EF0 Lincoln County EF0 McDuffie County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 75955. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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