Name: Tornado in Florida, July 24, 2001
Start: 2001-07-24T14:35
End: 2001-07-24T14:46
Location: Florida

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $15,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Mobile, AL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 24, 1:30 PM CST, 1 hour 5 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 24, 1:30 PM CST, 1 hour 5 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOBILE AL
230 PM CDT TUE JUL 24 2001

A WEAK...BUT FAIRLY WELL DEFINED LOW CIRCULATION NOTED IN RADAR AND
SATELLITE OVER SE LA APPARENTLY DRIFTG SLOWLY NW OR W. MODEL GUIDANCE
DID NOT INITIALIZE NORE FORECAST WELL THE INTENSITY OF SYSTEM...WHOSE
MAIN CIRCULATION APPEARS TO BE AT MID LEVELS...FEATURE STRONGER THAN
GUIDANCE SUGGESTS. INCR CVG OF SHRA/TSRA WAS EXPECTED INTO TONIGHT
DUE TO TROF EXTENDING OVER THE CENTRAL GMEX NE INTO PIEDMONT AND
SOUTHEAST STATES. THAT WAS TO LIFT NORTHWEST...AS QSNRY FRONTAL BDY
ORIENTED ZONALLY THRU MID SOUTH REGION VASCILLATES IN INTENSITY SHOWN
ON Q-VECTOR FIELDS.

AMONGST MODELS...AVN VERIFIES BEST IN TAU-36 TO 42 HR AT SFC AND 500.
COMPARISON TO PREVIOUS MODEL RUNS INDICATES AVN STEADY FOR THE LAST 2
RUNS. HOWEVER...IN TAU 192-168 FOR MRF...IT LOOKS LIKE THE MRF WANTS
TO DIG A TROF HARDER OVER THE PLAINS WHICH WOULD ULTIMATELY AFFECT
OUTLOOK HERE.  HOWEVER...WILL STAY WITH CLIMO.

PW >= 2 INCHES WELL INITIALIZED ALONG THE TROF AXIS. 500 VORTMAX MOVG
NW FROM THE CWA TONIGHT...AND MSAS HAS CONSISTENTLY SHOWN TREMENDOUS
(-50 G-KG/12HR) WHICH INDICATES WE ARE IN A LULL AND WILL SEE MORE
PCPN TONIGHT.  VISIBLE SATELLITE LOOPS SHOW SPIRAL OF CLOUD ELEMENTS
OVER THE NORTHERN GMEX CIRCULATION CENTERED WELL WEST OF HERE OVER
LAND. UPPER SHEAR AXIS REMAINS DRAPED OVER THE REGION THROUGH
THURSDAY. MODEL SOUNDINGS SHOWING A DEEP TROPICAL AIRMASS MOVING
IN...LOCALLY HEAVY RAINS POSSIBLE AND WILL CALL FOR THIS TONIGHT.
WITH ALL THIS PCPN AND WET GROUND IN THE AREA...EXPECT THU AFTERNOON
TEMPERATURES TO BE COOLER THAN CLIMO WITH OVERNIGHT MINS CHANGING
LITTLE.

MARINE...WINDS NOT GOING TO SLACKEN TONIGHT...WITH COMBINATION OF
AFOREMENTIONED LOW...AND HIGH PRES RIDGING INTO AREA FROM THE EAST...
XPCTG WINDS TO REMAIN AT SCA CRITERIA THROUGH  THIS EVENING.
SCT-NMRS SHRA/TSRA XPCTD TO CONTINUE OVER MARINE AREA TONIGHT...
PRODUCING OCCASIONAL GUSTS GALE FORCE...SO WILL CONTINUE WITH THAT
WORDING.  WINDS/SEAS WILL BEGIN TO DIMINISH ON THURSDAY AS HIGH
PRESSURE BUILDS INTO MARINE AREA.

FIRE WEATHER...NO CONCERNS AS ABUNDANT MOISTURE RESULTS IN
WIDESPREAD RAINFALL AND HIGH RELATIVE HUMIDITIES ACROSS THE REGION.

EXTENDED...AS THAT TROF DEVELOPS OVER THE PLAINS THROUGH THE WEEKEND/
FIRST PART OF NEXT WEEK. WOULD FAVOR SGFNT SHRA/TSRA CVG DECREASE BY
THE WEEKEND.  DEEP CONVECTION ALG SEABREEZE FRONT PSBL WITH SCT POPS
FURTHER INLAND....WITH RETURN TO DIURNAL SEABREEZE SITUATION THROUGH
THE PERIOD.

KSIL...THANKS FOR COORD CALL.

PUBLIC - 77
MARINE/FIRE - 12

PRELIM NUMBERS...

MOB EE 073/085 073/086 075 77873
PNS EE 074/084 075/087 076 77763
DTS BE 075/084 076/087 076 77553
GZH EE 072/088 073/089 072 77652
2R0 EE 073/089 073/089 072 77652
61A EE 072/088 073/089 072 77552

.MOB...
AL...NONE.
FL...NONE.
MS...NONE.

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Okaloosa

When: July 24, 2:35 PM CST to 2:46 PM CST
Where: Okaloosa County, Florosa
Rating: F0
Path length: 0.2 mi
Path width: 50 yd
Property damage: $15,000
Reported by: EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates: 30.417, -86.717

A waterspout moved ashore and did some minor damage near Florosa. A church and several buildings suffered minor roof damage as the spout moved north. Power lines were also blown down. Several outbuildings were also damaged. The weak tornado lifted back into the cloud and was observed as a funnel cloud for another five to ten minutes before finally dissipating around 250 PM.

What these are

Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Florida in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Florida, 2001 Warnings in Florida, July 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5259645.