Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 1965

F2 tornado, Okaloosa County, Florida, June 10, 1965

This F2 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Okaloosa County on June 10, 1965, touching down at 1:50 PM GMT-5 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F2
Date
June 10, 1965
Touchdown
1:50 PM GMT-5 (18:50 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Okaloosa County
Touchdown point
30.400, -86.670
Record number
542

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL (KVPS), 12:00Z

6.8 hours before the tornado, 19 km from the path. June 10, 1965.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL at 12:00Z on 1965-06-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 233 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 579 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL at 12:00Z on 1965-06-10The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 42 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
233 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
682 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
579 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
42 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
43 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL (KVPS), 00:00Z

5.2 hours after it, 19 km from the path. June 11, 1965.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL at 00:00Z on 1965-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 552 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 639 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL at 00:00Z on 1965-06-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 15 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
552 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2151 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
639 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
15 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
57 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1965 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 10, 1965

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 102:00 PM GMT-5F0Winkler, TX0.117
June 102:30 PM GMT-5F0Swisher, TX0.117
June 102:53 PM GMT-6F0Jefferson, CO0.110
June 105:25 PM GMT-4F0Leon, FL0.110under $50
June 105:50 PM GMT-4F1Washington, ME1.0503$50,000 to $500,000
June 106:30 PM GMT-5F0Stevens, KS0.110
June 106:15 PM GMT-6F1Chaves, NM0.3173$500 to $5,000
June 108:00 PM GMT-6F1Chaves, NM0.110$500 to $5,000
June 1010:00 PM GMT-5F0Hale, TX0.517
June 1010:00 PM GMT-5F2Hale, TX0.510

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.