Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2006

F1 tornado, Worthington Spgs, Florida, August 4, 2006

This F1 tornado ran 5.5 miles across Union County on August 4, 2006, touching down at 7:10 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
August 4, 2006
Touchdown
7:10 PM EDT (23:10 UTC)
Path length
5.5 miles (8.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Union County
Touchdown point
29.920, -82.420
Lift-off point
30.000, -82.530
Record number
785

What the Weather Service recorded

The tornadic cell moved into southern Union county near Worthington Springs. The first damage report stated that an outbuilding was damaged, a home porch was destroyed, a car was destroyed because of a fallen tree and trees were on power lines about 10 miles W of Lake Butler. At 1920 LDT, law enforcement reported viewing a tornado at County Road 18 and 239. The cell tracked NNE toward Providence.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:49 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAX

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:06 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.

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 12:00Z

11.2 hours before the tornado, 96 km from the path. August 4, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2006-08-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 267 joules per kilogram, CIN -186, lifted condensation level 1515 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, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2006-08-04The 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 -35 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 knots.193958Sfc1 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
267 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-186 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1299 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1515 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-35 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
49 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z

0.8 hours after it, 96 km from the path. August 5, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2006-08-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 429 joules per kilogram, CIN -158, lifted condensation level 1545 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, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2006-08-05The 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 41 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 knots.1939Sfc1 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
429 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-158 J/kg
Surface CAPE
188 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1545 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
57 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:08 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
21:20 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Nw Live OakSuwannee, FLDAMAGE TO HORSE BARN AND PORTION OF ROOF ON HOME DAMAGED. TIME APPROXIMATED FROM RADAR.
23:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGWorthington SpringsAlachua, FNUMEROUS REPORTS OF TREES DOWN IN THE TOWN OF WORTHINGTON SPRINGS ALONG WITH NUMEROUS REPORTS OF QUARTER SIZE HAIL. TREES DOWN IN RIVER BEND ESTATES.
23:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGWorthington SpringsUnion, FLNUMEROUS REPORTS OF TREES DOWN IN THE TOWN OF WORTHINGTON SPRINGS ALONG WITH NUMEROUS REPORTS OF QUARTER SIZE HAIL. TREES DOWN IN RIVER BEND ESTATES.
23:05 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 N Worthington SpringsUnion, FLQUARTER SIZE HAIL AND TREES DOWN ALONG SW 239A.
23:10 UTCTORNADO10 W Lake ButlerUnion, FLOUTBUILDING DAMAGED. PORCH ON HOME DAMAGED. CAR DESTROYED BY FALLING TREES. TREES ON POWERLINES. DAMAGE IN WESTERN PART OF COUNTY FROM HIGHWAY 18 WEST NORTH TO PROVIDENCE. TIME APPROXIMATE.
23:20 UTCTORNADODukesUnion, FLLAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTS OFFICER SIGHTING OF TORNADO AT COUNTY ROAD 18 AND 239.
00:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 N Glen St. MaryBaker, FLSEVERAL TREES DOWN NORTH OF U.S. 90 IN GLEN ST. MARY.
00:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGMacclennyBaker, FLTREE FELL ON RESIDENCE. TIME APPROXIMATE.

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 August 4, 2006

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 48:21 PM CDTF0McIntosh, ND0.140

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.