Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 1977

F2 tornado, Putnam County, Florida, December 5, 1977

This F2 tornado ran 9.4 miles across Putnam County on December 5, 1977, touching down at 1:30 PM EST and reaching 40 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 10, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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
December 5, 1977
Touchdown
1:30 PM EST (18:30 UTC)
Path length
9.4 miles (15.1 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
1
Injuries
10
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Putnam County
Touchdown point
29.630, -81.700
Lift-off point
29.670, -81.550
Record number
835

What the Weather Service recorded

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

AgeSexWhereKind
Direct

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

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.

Jacksonville, FL (KAYS), 12:00Z

6.5 hours before the tornado, 95 km from the path. December 5, 1977.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 1977-12-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 17 joules per kilogram, CIN -230, lifted condensation level 573 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, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 1977-12-05The 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 714 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
17 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-230 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
573 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
67 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
714 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
835 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.6
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KAYS), 00:00Z

5.5 hours after it, 95 km from the path. December 6, 1977.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 1977-12-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1970 joules per kilogram, CIN -13, lifted condensation level 789 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, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 1977-12-06The 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 111 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 66 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
1970 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-13 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1626 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
789 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
111 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
142 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.4
Supercell composite
6.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1977 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of December 5, 1977

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 55:30 AM ESTF1Rockcastle, KY25.0100$5,000 to $50,000
December 59:40 AM ESTF1McMinn, TN5.11001$50,000 to $500,000
December 511:20 AM ESTF1Pickens, SC1.050$50,000 to $500,000
December 52:35 PM ESTF1Spartanburg, SC0.220$5,000 to $50,000
December 52:42 PM ESTF1Cherokee, SC0.2171$5,000 to $50,000
December 55:00 PM ESTF1Dinwiddie, VA0.720$5,000 to $50,000
December 55:40 PM ESTF1York, SC1.5100$5,000 to $50,000
December 56:55 PM ESTF1Orangeburg, SC9.81307$500,000 to $5 million

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.