Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 1997
F1 tornado, Milton T Fld, Florida, January 15, 1997
This F1 tornado ran 1.1 miles across Santa Rosa County on January 15, 1997, touching down at 9:45 PM CST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- January 15, 1997
- Touchdown
- 9:45 PM CST (03:45 UTC)
- Path length
- 1.1 miles (1.8 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $100,000
- County
- Santa Rosa County
- Touchdown point
- 30.630, -87.000
- Lift-off point
- 30.630, -87.000
- Record number
- 7
What the Weather Service recorded
A weak F1 tornado touched down just northeast of Wright Basin. Numerous trees were blown down and several homes were damaged. One home had most of its roof taken off. Numerous boathouses were destroyed with several boats torn from their moorings. The tornado then skipped northeast and damaged two hangars at Milton airport. Two ultra light planes inside one of the hangars suffered damage. The tornado continued northeast and again touched down along Stagecoach Road. A chain-link fence and several trees were blown down. A travel trailer was moved three feet with pots and pans inside the trailer sucked out of the cabinets and thrown onto the floor. The tornado then blew shingles from a couple of homes as it moved northeast. Just before lifting back into the cloud, the tornado flipped two vehicles parked at a home. The first, a pickup truck, was flipped two times and came to rest in a field on its wheels. The second, a Lincoln Continental, was flipped over on its top and came to rest against a tree. Both vehicles were destroyed. A couple of residents referred to the tornado sound as a sonic boom.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
9 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:36 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:45 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03:16 UTC | 04:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB |
| 03:36 UTC | 04:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | MOB |
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 06:18 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.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1997 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of January 15, 1997
7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 15 | 4:49 PM CST | F1 | Lamar, MS | 7.0 | 80 | 2 | $100,000 | |
| January 15 | 5:30 PM CST | F1 | Pearl River, MS | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| January 15 | 10:49 PM CST | F1 | Walton, FL | 0.2 | 73 | $10,000 | ||
| January 15 | 11:12 PM CST | F1 | Washington, FL | 0.2 | 50 | 3 | $30,000 | |
| January 15 | 11:14 PM CST | F1 | Washington, FL | 0.2 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| January 15 | 11:43 PM CST | F2 | Calhoun, FL | 0.5 | 150 | 1 | $50,000 | |
| January 15 | 11:45 PM CST | F1 | Calhoun, FL | 0.5 | 50 | $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.