Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2006

F0 tornado, Crawfordville, Florida, April 22, 2006

This F0 tornado ran 4.0 miles across Wakulla County on April 22, 2006, touching down at 5:21 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 of property damage.

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
April 22, 2006
Touchdown
5:21 PM EDT (21:21 UTC)
Path length
4.0 miles (6.4 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Wakulla County
Touchdown point
30.220, -84.370
Lift-off point
30.220, -84.300
Record number
410

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado touched down near Whiddon Lake, then crossed U.S. Highway 319 and up the middle of Lonnie Raker Lane. It skipped across and caused minor structural damage on Old Bethel Road. There were numerous downed trees along its intermittent path. Reported by the Wakulla Country EMA.

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

The warnings

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:50 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 air that afternoon

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.

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 12:00Z

9.4 hours before the tornado, 20 km from the path. April 22, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2006-04-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 229 joules per kilogram, CIN -126, lifted condensation level 918 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2006-04-22The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 53 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
229 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-126 J/kg
Surface CAPE
436 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
918 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
53 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
108 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.1
Supercell composite
-1.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 00:00Z

2.6 hours after it, 20 km from the path. April 23, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2006-04-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1508 joules per kilogram, CIN -33, lifted condensation level 639 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2006-04-23The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 119 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1508 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-33 J/kg
Surface CAPE
724 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
639 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
119 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
134 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.1
Supercell composite
7.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Tallahassee Regional (TLH), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:39 UTC78.868150° 11 kt1014.9TS
19:53 UTC7573210° 6 kt1014.9-TSRA
20:15 UTC75.273.4140° 7 kt1014.6-RA
20:27 UTC78.875.2160° 7 kt1014.2TS
20:53 UTC7773170° 8 kt1014.2TS
21:53 UTC726770° 8 kt1013.9-TSRA
22:03 UTC69.866.2100° 18 kt1012.9TS
22:32 UTC69.866.270° 11 kt1014.2+TSRA BR
22:53 UTC6866100° 14 kt1014.2TS
23:03 UTC6866.2110° 9 kt1014.6TS BR
23:20 UTC69.866.2140° 9 kt1014.6

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

The radar

The Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 20 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:19 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:10 UTCHAIL 0.53 Nw TallahasseeLeon, FLOBSERVER REPORTED DIME SIZE HAIL NEAR CAPITAL CIRCLE AND INTERSTATE-10
21:21 UTCHAIL 0.882 N TallahasseeLeon, FLNWS FORECASTER REPORTED NICKEL TO DIME SIZE HAIL NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF INTERSTATE-10 AND MONROE
21:26 UTCHAIL 11 N TallahasseeLeon, FLMETEOROLOGY STUDENT REPORTED QUARTER SIZE HAIL ON THARPE STREET
21:30 UTCHAIL 1.751 W TallahasseeLeon, FLMETEOROLOGY STUDENT REPORTED GOLF BALL SIZE HAIL NEAR THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY STADIUM
21:35 UTCHAIL 0.5WakullaWakulla, FLREPORTS OF MARBLE SIZE HAIL NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAYS 267 AND 363 IN WAKULLA
21:50 UTCTSTM WND DMGCrawfordvilleWakulla, FLEMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTED TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN THROUGHOUT THE CITY OF CRAWFORDVILLE AND NORTH OF THE CITY
22:48 UTCTORNADO5 N NewportWakulla, FLEMERGENCY MANAGER RELAYED REPORT FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT WITH SITING OF A TORNADO IN A RURAL AREA NORTH OF NEWPORT

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 22, 2006

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 227:20 PM CDTF0Ward, TX0.130

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.