Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 1995

F1 tornado, Camden and Nassau counties, Florida and Georgia, June 5, 1995

This F1 tornado ran 4.0 miles across Camden and Nassau counties on June 5, 1995, touching down at 4:00 AM CDT and reaching 13 yards wide. It killed nobody, 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 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
June 5, 1995
Touchdown
4:00 AM CDT (09:00 UTC)
Path length
4.0 miles (6.4 km)
Path width
13 yards (12 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
Counties
Camden and Nassau counties
Touchdown point
30.730, -81.530
Lift-off point
30.730, -81.550
Record number
666

The warnings

63 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:57 UTC, 63 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
07:57 UTC09:00 UTCTornado WarningJAX
09:32 UTC10:30 UTCTornado WarningJAX

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:57 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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 (KJAX), 00:00Z

9.0 hours before the tornado, 30 km from the path. June 5, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 1995-06-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 274 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 482 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, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 1995-06-05The 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 1 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
274 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
832 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
482 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
1 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
42 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 12:00Z

3.0 hours after it, 30 km from the path. June 5, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 1995-06-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1098 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 493 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, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 1995-06-05The 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 214 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
1098 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1058 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
493 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
214 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
254 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
5.8
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1995 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 5, 1995

19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 53:38 AM EDTF0Duval, FL3.010$50,000 to $500,000
June 54:20 AM EDTF1Camden, GA0.110$50,000 to $500,000
June 57:30 AM EDTF1Glynn, GA0.733$5,000 to $50,000
June 511:05 AM EDTF1Beaufort, SC3.040$50,000 to $500,000
June 53:43 PM CDTF0Floyd, TX0.220
June 53:55 PM CDTF0Floyd, TX0.320$5,000 to $50,000
June 52:04 PM PDTF0Lyon, NV0.5300$50,000 to $500,000
June 54:05 PM CDTF2Floyd, TX13.0350$50,000 to $500,000
June 54:20 PM CDTF0Story, IA5.020$5,000 to $50,000
June 55:05 PM CDTF0Dickens, TX0.220
June 55:37 PM CDTF0Dickens, TX0.220
June 56:08 PM CDTF0Haskell, TX0.110
June 55:20 PM MDTF0Clark, ID0.110$500 to $5,000
June 56:42 PM CDTF0Haskell, TX0.110
June 56:52 PM CDTF0Stonewall, TX0.220
June 57:04 PM CDTF0Kent, TX0.220
June 57:15 PM CDTF0Garfield, OK0.123
June 58:12 PM CDTF0Garfield, OK0.123
June 58:39 PM MDTF0Blaine, ID0.110

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.