Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 1985

F1 tornado, Walton County, Florida, October 28, 1985

This F1 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Walton County on October 28, 1985, touching down at 6:40 AM CST and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 5, and did $500,000 to $5 million 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 mphthis tornado

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    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
F1
Date
October 28, 1985
Touchdown
6:40 AM CST (12:40 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
5
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
County
Walton County
Touchdown point
30.470, -86.400
Record number
653

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

0.7 hours before the tornado, 10 km from the path. October 28, 1985.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL at 12:00Z on 1985-10-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2105 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 488 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 12:00Z on 1985-10-28The 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 246 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 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
2105 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1134 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
488 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
246 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
293 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
9.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Eglin Afb/Valparais (VPS), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
10:43 UTC90° 11 kt191004.1+TSRA
11:00 UTC787590° 10 kt1004.1TSRA
11:42 UTC90° 12 kt1003.4TS
12:00 UTC787580° 12 kt1003TS
12:15 UTC100° 11 kt201003SHRA FZFG
12:22 UTC80° 13 kt231003+TSRA FZFG
12:43 UTC110° 14 kt241003SHRA FZFG
13:00 UTC7876110° 14 kt281003.7-SHRA FG
13:08 UTC130° 12 kt221003.7FZFG
13:27 UTC120° 14 kt231004.1SHRA FZFG
13:38 UTC120° 20 kt261004.4SHRA FZFG
13:46 UTC120° 20 kt251004.7SHRA FZFG
14:00 UTC7976120° 22 kt281004.7-SHRA FG
14:05 UTC 1005.1FZFG

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1985 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of October 28, 1985

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 283:00 AM CSTF0Escambia, FL2.010$5,000 to $50,000
October 285:30 AM CSTF1Okaloosa, FL1.0101$500,000 to $5 million
October 287:45 AM CSTF0Okaloosa, FL12.010$5,000 to $50,000
October 2811:00 AM CSTF1Covington, AL0.130$5,000 to $50,000
October 2811:15 AM CSTF1Escambia, AL0.130$5,000 to $50,000
October 284:50 PM CSTF1Lincoln, MS1.2100$5,000 to $50,000

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.