F1 tornado, Panama City to Calloway, Florida, September 15, 2004

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 15, 2004

Touchdown

4:00 PM CDT (21:00 UTC)

Path length

6.0 miles (9.7 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$2.0 million

County

Bay County

Touchdown point

30.130, -85.170

Lift-off point

30.170, -85.620

Record number

1642

A strong F1 tornado touched down near the St Andrews recreation area. It damaged dozens of restaurants, stores and shops as it moved north along Thomas Drive. Seven persons were injured at a seafood restaurant near Grand Lagoon. An elderly man was killed when the tornado destroyed a real estate office. The tornado moved across St Andrews Bay near the Hathaway Bridge and then 100 yards south of the WJHG-TV station before dissipating. Reported by the Bay County EMA and WJHG-TV meteorologist.

A wood-frame house was lifted 60 feet off its foundation and thrown into a field. Of the seven family members inside, one was killed and another injured. Several other homes were damaged. Reported by a HAM radio operator.

A tornado touched down just southeast of Calloway and lifted just north of Panama City. It destroyed several homes in Calloway, Parker and Cedar Grove, and downed numerous trees and power lines. Reported by a HAM radio operator and the Bay County EMA.

The deaths

2 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

43 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:17 UTC, 43 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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.

Tyndall Afb (PAM), 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 2004 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

25 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.