F1 tornado, Sanibel, Florida, September 17, 2000

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.

Rating

F1

Date

September 17, 2000

Touchdown

4:43 AM EDT (08:43 UTC)

Path length

18.0 miles (29.0 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$2.0 million

County

Lee County

Touchdown point

26.450, -81.980

Lift-off point

26.700, -82.150

Record number

549

A fast moving tornado, on the low end of the F1 scale, associated with an outer band of hurricane Gordon, touched down along East Gulf Drive, two miles east of Sanibel on Sanibel Island, and caused extensive damage to two condominium complexes, two dozen nearby homes and lanais. The tornado moved north northwest and sporadically touched down along rural County Road 767 on Pine Island in western Lee county. The tornado damaged the roofs of a few homes, carports and toppled or snapped palm trees along it's path. The tornado lifted and dissipated near Bokeelia on the north side of Pine Island. Residents in the path of the tornado in Sanibel indicated that they heard the sound of roaring train and their ears felt an air pressure change as it passed overhead.

A tornado, on the high end of the F1 scale, associated with an outer band of Hurricane Gordon, touched down on the south side of Sanibel Island and rapidly moved north northwest across Periwinkle Way where it removed roofs, destroyed lanais, downed trees, power lines and large branches across the island. The tornado then moved over southern Pine Island where it widened to nearly 200 feet in width and uprooted or stripped numerous mangrove trees. The tornado continued rapidly north northwest along and east of County Road 767 until it moved over Little Pine Island. The tornado caused significant roof damage to two businesses and at least ten homes, carports, garages and lanais along Pine Island Road, west of Matlacha, before it dissipated on the northern side of Little Pine Island. Also, more than a dozen trees were uprooted and five utility poles downed by the tornado along Pine Island Road near west of Matlacha. Residents along Pine Island Road indicated that the torndo sounded like a loud machine or train as it passed overhead.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:20 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.

Fort Myers/Page Field (FMY), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.