F3 tornado, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, November 1, 1997

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F3

Date

November 1, 1997

Touchdown

12:45 AM EST (05:45 UTC)

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

32

Property damage

$14 million

County

Volusia County

Touchdown point

29.020, -80.930

Lift-off point

29.020, -80.930

Record number

544

A rapidly intensifying tornado initially touched down in New Smyrna Beach about 1 mile west of U.S. Highway 1 between Enterprise and Wayne Avenues. The tornado moved east northeast at about 50 mph damaging several homes and downing trees and power lines. It lifted just west of Highway 1 after passing Chisholm Elementary School. The tornado then struck New Smyrna Beach High School producing Fujita Scale F1 damage. As the tornado intensified to a strong F3 category, it passed thorough the Venetian VIllas subdivision and the Diamond Head Condominiums. A number of large well built homes were destroyed. Many of the units in the 10 story Diamond Head Condominiums received major damage as high winds blew out exterior glass walls and blew furniture into the adjoining Indian River Lagoon. The tornado then crossed the Intracoastal Waterway and passed over the barrier island between Robinson Road and East Street where a number of large well built homes were almost completely destroyed. The tornado then moved over the Atlantic Ocean. In all 32 people were injured, six requiring hospitalisation. Thirty one homes were destroyed and 290 were damaged. Damage estimates were near 14 million dollars.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:51 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 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.

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:47 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1997 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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