Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2006

F2 tornado, Lulu, Florida, December 25, 2006

This F2 tornado ran 2.7 miles across Columbia County on December 25, 2006, touching down at 8:06 AM EST and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1.

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 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
December 25, 2006
Touchdown
8:06 AM EST (13:06 UTC)
Path length
2.7 miles (4.4 km)
Path width
300 yards (274 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
County
Columbia County
Touchdown point
30.110, -82.430
Lift-off point
30.140, -82.400
Record number
1070

What the Weather Service recorded

A vigorous short wave trough and squall line moved across north Florida on Christmas Day resulting in severe weather across the northern and central portions of the state and a tornado near Lake City, Columbia County, Florida.

Columbia County Emergency Management reports damage to 12 homes and one home destroyed. A business was also destroyed. Extensive damage was reported in the community of Woodborough along Scenic Lake drive as well as along Moore road northwest of Lake City. One minor injury was reported with minor lacerations.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 11:17 UTC and running to 18:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
11:17 UTC18:00 UTCTornado WatchJAX
13:35 UTC14:30 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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:54 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

1.1 hours before the tornado, 80 km from the path. December 25, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2006-12-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 401 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 608 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 2006-12-25The 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 255 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 60 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
401 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
824 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
608 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
60 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
255 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
300 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
4.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 79 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:03 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
12:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ese ObrienSuwannee, FL3 OR 4 TREES DOWN NEAR COUNTY ROAD 49 AND COUNTY ROAD 247.
13:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGLive OakSuwannee, FLNUMEROUS TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN ACROSS POWER LINES. POWER OUTAGES WERE REPORTED STARTING AT 0743 EST DUE TO DOWNED TREES ON POWER LINES AND CONTINUED THROUGH 0814 EST. A TOTAL OF 179 CUSTOMERS WERE AFFECTED ACROSS SUWANNE
13:06 UTCTORNADO3 W Lake CityColumbia, FL4 HOMES DEMOLISHED IN PLANTATION ALONG HIGHWAY 90 JUST WEST OF INTERSTATE 75. ANOTHER HOME DEMOLISHED 5 MILES NORTH OF SR 441 AND ON COUNTY ROAD 245 SOUTH OF STATE ROAD 100.
13:06 UTCTORNADO7 Nw Lake CityColumbia, FL*** 1 INJ *** UPDATED STORM REPORT INFORMATION. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT REPORTS DAMAGE TO 12 HOMES WITH 1 HOME DEMOLISHED. ANOTHER BUSINESS WAS DESTROYED AS WELL. EXTENSIVE DAMAGE REPORTED IN THE COMMUNITY OF WOODBOROUGH AL

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 December 25, 2006

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 256:30 AM ESTF1Ben Hill, GA11.3100$300,000
December 2511:20 AM ESTF2Pasco, FL0.81002$3.5 million
December 2512:20 PM ESTF0Lake, FL0.350$250,000
December 251:22 PM ESTF2Volusia, FL2.8505$2.5 million
December 251:40 PM ESTF2Volusia, FL2.7806$50 million

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.