F0 tornado, Pensacola Beach to Gulf Breeze, Florida, September 15, 2004

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

September 15, 2004

Touchdown

2:55 PM CDT (19:55 UTC)

Path length

12.0 miles (19.3 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

Counties

Santa Rosa and Escambia counties

Touchdown point

30.330, -87.000

Lift-off point

30.350, -87.180

Record number

473

A fast moving tornado moved in from the Gulf of Mexico about eight miles east of Pensacola Beach. The weak tornado remained over isolated areas and thus caused only minor damage. The weak tornado moved into Santa Rosa county southeast of Gulf Breeze.

A fast moving tornado moved into Santa Rosa county from Escambia county. The weak tornado entered the county southeast of Gulf Breeze and moved rapidly west northwest before dissipating just west of Gulf Breeze. The tornado caused minor damage. The area had been evacuated due to Hurricane Ivan.

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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:07 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 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.