Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2007

EF2 tornado, Baxter, Florida, April 15, 2007

This EF2 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Baker County on April 15, 2007, touching down at 7:15 AM EDT and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF2
Date
April 15, 2007
Touchdown
7:15 AM EDT (11:15 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
300 yards (274 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Baker County
Touchdown point
30.530, -82.250
Lift-off point
30.530, -82.250
Record number
0704150515-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A surface low rapidly deepened over NC during the early morning hours of April 15, 2007, as the parent upper level trough phased with the surface feature. A squall line of severe storms preceding a cold front moved through northeast Florida during the early morning hours of April 15th and produced multiple supercells.

An EF2 tornado tracked across rural farmland in extreme northeast Baker county, just southwest of Moniac. A residence off of Moccasin Creek Road had an out building destroyed, widespread tree damage and minor damage to the primary residence.

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
10:59 UTC11:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAX
16:00 UTC01:00 UTCWind AdvisoryJAX
16:00 UTC19:08 UTCFire Weather WatchJAX
18:00 UTC07:53 UTCRed Flag WarningJAX
01:05 UTC09:00 UTCLake Wind AdvisoryJAX

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 05:53 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), 00:00Z

11.3 hours before the tornado, 53 km from the path. April 15, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-04-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 344 joules per kilogram, CIN -83, lifted condensation level 1113 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 2007-04-15The 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 122 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 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
344 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-83 J/kg
Surface CAPE
975 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1113 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
122 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
156 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 12:00Z

0.7 hours after it, 53 km from the path. April 15, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-04-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 626 joules per kilogram, CIN -31, lifted condensation level 630 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 2007-04-15The 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 421 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 71 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
626 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-31 J/kg
Surface CAPE
816 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
630 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
71 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
421 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
496 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.7
Supercell composite
7.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:15 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
11:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGBrycevilleNassau, FLSEVERAL REPORTS OF TREES AND POWER LINES BLOWN DOWN IN HILLARD, BRYCEVILLE AND CALLAHAN RECEIVED BY THE 911 CENTER.
11:15 UTCTORNADO7 Nne TaylorBaker, FLAN EF2 TORNADO WITH A PATH LENGTH OF 1.5 MILES AND WIDTH OF 300 YDS TRACKED ACROSS RURAL FARMLAND IN EXTREME NORTHEAST BAKER COUNTY...JUST SW OF MONIAC. A RESIDENCE OFF OF MOCCASIN CREEK ROAD HAD AN OUT BUILDING DESTROYE
11:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Nw CallahanNassau, FLTREES AND POWERLINES DOWN BETWEEN CALLAHAN AND HILLIARD NEAR U.S. 17. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR AND EMA OFFICE.
11:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ne TaylorBaker, FL2 TREES DOWN ACROSS FLORIDA COUNTY ROAD 2. OTHER ISOLATED POWER LINES DOWN.
11:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG7 Nne TaylorBaker, FLPOSSIBLE TORNADO. TREES DOWN IN ROAD. POWER LINES DOWN. 2 OUT BUILDINGS DESTROYED. MINOR BUILDING DAMAGE. APPOXIMATELY 1 MILE LONG DAMAGE PATH.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 15, 2007

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 152:04 AM EDTEF1Treutlen, GA14.9440$705,000
April 152:05 AM EDTEF1Laurens, GA19.0100$325,000
April 152:56 AM EDTEF2Emanuel, GA5.4200$250,000
April 153:23 AM EDTEF1Worth, GA6.7200$30,000
April 153:27 AM EDTEF1Crisp, GA7.9200$80,000
April 154:25 AM EDTEF2Dodge, GA3.6200$500,000
April 157:47 AM EDTEF0Bamberg, SC7.650$1,000
April 158:11 AM EDTEF0Bamberg, SC4.250
April 158:20 AM EDTEF3Sumter, SC19.030015
April 158:50 AM EDTEF1Lee, SC3.6200$5,000
April 159:37 AM EDTEF0Orangeburg, SC6.250$1,000
April 159:38 AM EDTEF1Colleton, SC1.060$100,000
April 159:41 AM EDTEF1Colleton, SC0.530$10,000
April 159:44 AM EDTEF1Colleton, SC2.0809$200,000
April 1510:10 AM EDTEF1Saint Johns, FL0.250
April 1512:00 PM EDTEF0Polk, FL2.0300$250,000

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.