Our NWS radar has come a long ways from the days of the old black and white radars! Now we have dual-pol doppler radar in multi-color with all kinds of bells and whistles, but this image shows what they had to work with in 1973. The hook echo just to the southwest of the center of the radar display was the tornado indicator for this tornado that passed through Athens GA on this date back in 1973.
From Perry Williams on Facebook:
An old black & white radar shot of a distinct hook echo approaching Athens, Georgia on the early evening of March 31, 1973. At the time of this radar shot, the long track F3 tornado was located between Conyers and Monroe, Georgia and approaching Athens at 50 mph.
The tornado first touched down near Jonesboro, GA aroud 5:30 pm and carved an 75 mile long path through Clayton, Henry, Dekalb, Rockdale, Walton, Oconee, Clarke, and Oglethorpe counties before finally dissipating 10 miles ENE of Athens. Two were killed, one near Conyers and a second victim in Athens. An even stronger tornado (F4) was spawned from the parent supercell, and killed 7 along a path from Calhoun Falls to Abbeville, South Carolina.
In the Atlanta area, baseball sized hail fell from Douglas through south Cobb county, causing severe damage to thousands of vehicles. Several Cobb county car dealerships were decimated, and A.L. Hyde, a popular Atlanta area new car dealer reportedly suffered a fatal heart attack after learning his inventory had been destroyed.
As a sidenote, I was 11 at the time, and the tennis to baseball sized hail that fell in Douglasville that Saturday evening was the largest hail I would witness in my Georgia hometown until another very stormy, deadly Saturday……March 15, 2008.
An interesting letter from tornado expert Dr. Theodore T. Fujita to the NSSFC Director Allen Pearson and MIC’s at WSFO Atlanta and WSO Athens dated April 9, 1973. Apparently Dr Fujita felt the Jonesboro to Athens tornado was actually two tornadoe……separated by a small path break WSW of Monroe, GA. He rated the Georgia tornado at least F3, and the South Carolina killer at least F4.
This Day in Weather History adds this information on their Facebook post:
March 31st, 1973 – A devastating tornado took a nearly continuous 75-mile path through north central Georgia causing more than 113 million dollars damage, the highest total of record for a natural disaster in the state at that time.
Click the link for an article and pictures from Online Athens published in 2013. https://goo.gl/7wnEMQ
Click the link for the National Weather Service Assessment.
https://goo.gl/ILo0lY
