Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2006

F1 tornado, Berrydale, Florida, January 13, 2006

This F1 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Santa Rosa County on January 13, 2006, touching down at 10:56 AM CST and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500,000 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 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
January 13, 2006
Touchdown
10:56 AM CST (16:56 UTC)
Path length
0.8 miles (1.3 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500,000
County
Santa Rosa County
Touchdown point
30.850, -87.020
Lift-off point
30.850, -87.020
Record number
26

What the Weather Service recorded

An F1 tornado touched down near the intersection of County Road 178 and State Highway 87. Several manufactured homes were damaged where the tornado first touched down. The tornado tracked northeast and crossed Highway 87 and caused only minor damage east of the highway. Near Highway 87 a home had most of the roof torn off. The roof of the home had reportedly been damaged, twice, by high winds associated with hurricanes Ivan and Dennis over the past year and a half. Both times the roof was repaired. No injuries were reported.

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 13:14 UTC and running to 19:01 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
13:14 UTC19:01 UTCTornado WatchMOB
16:01 UTC16:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMOB
16:27 UTC16:41 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMOB
16:52 UTC17:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMOB
17:12 UTC18:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMOB

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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:20 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
15:44 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 S MolinoEscambia, FLTREES DOWN
16:41 UTCTORNADO 0BakerOkaloosa, FL*** 13 INJ *** NWS STORM SURVEY FOUND THE DAMAGE AT BAKER TO BE A TORNADO WITH A PATH WIDTH OF 50 YARDS AND A LENGTH OF 4 MILES. IT WAS RATED AN F0. 13 MINOR INJURIES OCCURED AT BAKER SCHOOL ALONG WITH DAMAGE TO THE STRU
16:41 UTCTORNADOBakerOkaloosa, FL*** 15 INJ *** 10 TO 15 STUDENTS WITH MINOR INJURIES...ALSO HOMES DAMAGED ALONG WITH DAMAGE AT BAKER SCHOOL COMPLEX. AUTOS DAMAGED ON SCHOOL PROPERTY. SCHOOL OFFICIALS HEARD WARNING ON NOAA WEATHER RADIO AND MOVED STUDEN
16:56 UTCTSTM WND DMGMiltonSanta Rosa, FLDAMAGE TO SEVERAL HOMES IN MILTON ALONG CR 87. REPORTED BY NAWAS FL STATE WARNING POINT.
16:56 UTCTORNADO 14 S BerrydaleSanta Rosa, FLNWS STORM SURVEY FOUND THAT AN F1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ALONG HWY 87 SOUTH OF BERRYDALE. THE TORNADO HAD A PATH WIDTH OF 75 YARDS AND TRACK LENGHTH OF 3/4 OF A MILE. TWO HOMES DAMAGED AND THREE MOBILE HOMES WERE DESTROYED

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 January 13, 2006

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
January 134:20 AM CSTF1Concordia Parish, LA2.01001$450,000
January 1310:01 AM CSTF1Conecuh, AL1.08801$500,000
January 1310:41 AM CSTF0Okaloosa, FL4.05013$2.0 million
January 1312:00 PM CSTF0Dale, AL1.050$500,000
January 1312:20 PM CSTF0Barbour, AL8.51001$250,000
January 1312:45 PM CSTF0Henry, AL0.250$100,000
January 134:15 PM ESTF1Colquitt, GA9.61001$2.0 million
January 135:18 PM ESTF0Lexington, SC0.240
January 138:00 PM ESTF0Bamberg, SC0.140
January 138:06 PM ESTF1Gaston, NC0.5100$350,000
January 138:25 PM ESTF0Orangeburg, SC0.350
January 138:30 PM ESTF0Camden, GA0.10$200,000
January 139:02 PM ESTF0Orangeburg, SC0.350$10,000
January 139:35 PM ESTF1Clarendon, SC6.044018$500,000

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.