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EF0 tornado in Gordon County, Georgia

Tornado February 6, 2020 · Gordon County, Georgia

EF0

Rating

2.2 mi

Whole path

200 yd

Path width

$60K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Bartow County → Gordon 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 EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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 National Weather Service survey team found that during the pre-dawn hours of February 6th, within a fast-moving line of strong to severe thunderstorms, a brief tornado with peak wind speeds of 85 mph and a maximum path width of 200 yards moved northeast out of extreme northern Bartow County into Gordon County just south of the intersection of Green Loop and Dempsey Loop Roads. The worst of the damage was confined to a small area along East Plainview Road SE where 10 to 12 large trees were uprooted and a manufactured home had its entire roof ripped off and was slightly moved off its foundation. Homes on either side of this location sustained some roof damage as well. The tornado turned east-northeast, hitting another home, lifting and damaging part of its front porch. A few small trees were snapped along Shope Lake Road SE before the tornado dissipated just east of this point. [02/06/20: Tornado #1, County #2/2, EF-0, Gordon, 2020:006].

The wider storm

A line of thunderstorms ahead of a strong cold front moved into northwest Georgia in the pre-dawn hours and swept across north and central Georgia through the morning into the afternoon producing numerous reports of damaging thunderstorm winds and an isolated tornado. Storms along the front also produced heavy rainfall, ranging from 1.5 to 4 inches, with higher amounts up to 6 inches, particularly over north Georgia. These rainfall amounts produced flash flooding over north and central Georgia.

Began near Bowls (34.3968, -84.8576).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 875897. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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