F0 tornado, Crystal River to Hernando, Florida, March 29, 2001

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.

Rating

F0

Date

March 29, 2001

Touchdown

10:05 AM EST (15:05 UTC)

Path length

10.3 miles (16.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Citrus County

Touchdown point

28.950, -82.570

Lift-off point

28.980, -82.450

Record number

59

National Weather Service damage survey indicated that a high end F0 tornado, that averaged 50 yards in width, touched down and caused heavy roof damage to a mobile home along West Jennifer Court, east of County Road 495. The tornado continued northeast and sporadically touched down on North Fairport Avenue near West Dunklin Street where minor to moderate damage occurred to rooftops, sheds and lanais, including several downed pines trees and large branches. Also, the tornadic winds rolled over one mobile home along the 4500 block of North Fairport near West Dunklin Street.The tornado continued northeast and caused sporadic damage to mainly roof tiles, shingles, lanais and trees in and along the Citrus Springs Country Club. The tornado downed a few additional trees and large branches near County Road 39 and North Perkins Path before it lifted and dissipated.

Citrus county emergency management reported that a F0 tornado initially touched down near East Bryant Street and North Croft Avenue, two miles south-southwest of Hernando, and sporadically touched down as it moved northeast across mixed residential neighborhoods near U.S. Highway 41. The tornado continued northeast, then lifted and dissipated near East Parson Point Road, one mile east of Hernando. The tornado caused mainly minor damage to roof tiles, awnings, sheds, lanais of homes and toppled a few trees along its narrow path. A woman was injured from shattered glass when wind blown debris broke her vehicle's windshield along North Croft Avenue.

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 13:17 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.

Ocala (OCF), 36 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 2001 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

6 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.