Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 1999

F0 tornado, Harold, Florida, January 2, 1999

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Santa Rosa County on January 2, 1999, touching down at 11:40 AM CST. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
January 2, 1999
Touchdown
11:40 AM CST (17:40 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
0 yards (0 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Santa Rosa County
Touchdown point
30.720, -86.870
Lift-off point
30.720, -86.870
Record number
129

What the Weather Service recorded

Law Enforcement saw a tornado briefly touch down near Deaton Bridge in the Blackwater River State Park. No damage was found.

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

The warnings

24 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:16 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
16:32 UTC17:15 UTCTornado WarningMOB
17:16 UTC17:45 UTCTornado WarningMOB
17:45 UTC18:15 UTCTornado WarningMOB
18:29 UTC19:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMOB

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 10:40 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 1999 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of January 2, 1999

28 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
January 212:20 AM CSTF1Galveston, TX0.50$40,000
January 212:26 AM CSTF0Galveston, TX0.30$30,000
January 212:45 AM CSTF2Jasper, TX4.5250110$1.3 million
January 21:05 AM CSTF0Calcasieu Parish, LA2.5100$30,000
January 21:25 AM CSTF2Beauregard Parish, LA1.0100$50,000
January 21:50 AM CSTF1Calcasieu Parish, LA2.550$70,000
January 21:50 AM CSTF1Beauregard Parish, LA3.0400$50,000
January 21:50 AM CSTF2Beauregard Parish, LA5.0400$50,000
January 22:20 AM CSTF1Allen Parish, LA2.0200$50,000
January 22:30 AM CSTF2Calcasieu Parish, LA4.04002$250,000
January 23:00 AM CSTF1Jefferson Davis Parish, LA1.050$100,000
January 23:10 AM CSTF2Acadia Parish, LA10.0400$500,000
January 24:00 AM CSTF1Saint Landry Parish, LA1.050$100,000
January 25:30 AM ESTF1Palm Beach, FL3.230$5.9 million
January 24:32 AM CSTF0Vermilion Parish, LA2.0200$50,000
January 24:42 AM CSTF0Vermilion Parish, LA1.0100$50,000
January 24:57 AM CSTF1Iberia Parish, LA4.0200$1.5 million
January 25:40 AM CSTF1St. Mary Parish, LA2.01001$70,000
January 26:43 AM CSTF1Terrebonne Parish, LA1.050$700,000
January 27:00 AM CSTF1Lafourche Parish, LA1.050$280,000
January 22:10 PM CSTF2Bay, FL3.81007$4.0 million
January 24:10 PM ESTF0Pierce, GA2.510$40,000
January 23:30 PM CSTF0Gulf, FL1.00$30,000
January 210:26 PM ESTF0Hernando, FL0.50$70,000
January 211:10 PM ESTF0Sarasota, FL2.320$250,000
January 211:15 PM ESTF0Putnam, FL5.010$40,000
January 211:22 PM ESTF1Hillsborough, FL2.3101$150,000
January 211:35 PM ESTF1Hillsborough, FL0.2100$150,000

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.