Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2008
EF1 tornado, Molino Xrds to Brickton, Florida, February 17, 2008
From Molino Xrds to Brickton, this EF1 tornado ran 5.1 miles across Escambia County on February 17, 2008, touching down at 11:59 AM CST and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $750,000 of property damage.
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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF1
- Date
- February 17, 2008
- Touchdown
- 11:59 AM CST (17:59 UTC)
- Lifted
- 12:03 PM CST (18:03 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 5.1 miles (8.2 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $750,000
- County
- Escambia County
- Touchdown point
- 30.703, -87.360
- Lift-off point
- 30.739, -87.286
- Record number
- 0802171159-01
The damage survey
3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry.
- Beginning point of Molino Crossroads tornado.
- Approximate end point of the Molino Xrds tornado based on Storm Data.
- Approximate beginning point of Chumuckla EF1 tornado based on Storm Data.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A long lived supercell thunderstorm moved across northwest Florida producing two tornadoes.
A strong EF1 tornado first touched down west of Highway 29 and to the south of Molino Road. The tornado then moved northeast just to the south of Molino Road to near Old Molino and then crossed the Escambia River and dissipated just east of the river. The tornado damaged approximately 60 structures, including homes, storage buildings and businesses sustained varying degrees of damage ranging from minor to heavy. Forty of the structures were uninhabitable. No injuries were reported.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
13 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:46 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:16 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 11:26 UTC and running to 18:34 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:26 UTC | 18:34 UTC | Tornado Watch | MOB |
| 17:46 UTC | 18:16 UTC | Tornado Warning | MOB |
| 18:34 UTC | 21:55 UTC | Tornado Watch | MOB |
| 20:31 UTC | 21:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB |
| 21:28 UTC | 22:09 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB |
| 23:19 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB |
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 16:17 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 radar
The Mobile radar (KMOB), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:59 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:01 UTC | TORNADO | Molino | Escambia, FL | TORNADO REPORTED ON THE GROUND BY MOLINO FIRE DEPARTMENT AND RELAYED THROUGH E-911 CENTER |
| 18:23 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Se Jay | Santa Rosa, FL | HOUSE AND ROOF DAMAGE JUST SOUTHEAST OF JAY. TIME AND LOCATION ESTIMATED. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of February 17, 2008
25 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 17 | 12:00 AM CST | EF1 | Barbour, AL | 2.3 | 50 | $75,000 | ||
| February 17 | 1:30 AM CST | EF1 | Saint Landry Parish, LA | 5.6 | 125 | $125,000 | ||
| February 17 | 3:42 AM CST | EF1 | Saint Helena Parish, LA | 0.3 | 15 | $30,000 | ||
| February 17 | 3:55 AM CST | EF1 | Tangipahoa Parish, LA | 2.0 | 15 | $15,000 | ||
| February 17 | 4:25 AM CST | EF0 | Washington Parish, LA | 0.1 | 15 | $8,000 | ||
| February 17 | 5:05 AM CST | EF0 | Washington Parish, LA | 0.3 | 15 | $20,000 | ||
| February 17 | 12:14 PM CST | EF1 | Santa Rosa, FL | 2.1 | 75 | $200,000 | ||
| February 17 | 12:26 PM CST | EF2 | Dallas, AL | 7.6 | 400 | $350,000 | ||
| February 17 | 1:04 PM CST | EF2 | Escambia, AL | 14.4 | 500 | $950,000 | ||
| February 17 | 1:05 PM CST | EF1 | Chilton, AL | 1.2 | 200 | $150,000 | ||
| February 17 | 1:42 PM CST | EF1 | Coosa, AL | 10.8 | 100 | $105,000 | ||
| February 17 | 1:47 PM CST | EF0 | Tallapoosa, AL | 4.5 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| February 17 | 2:03 PM CST | EF0 | Clay, AL | 1.6 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| February 17 | 2:17 PM CST | EF1 | Coffee, AL | 1.2 | 100 | $25,000 | ||
| February 17 | 2:22 PM CST | EF1 | Randolph, AL | 14.7 | 150 | $100,000 | ||
| February 17 | 2:23 PM CST | EF1 | Pike, AL | 8.4 | 250 | $60,000 | ||
| February 17 | 2:24 PM CST | EF2 | Lowndes, AL | 11.0 | 225 | 10 | $215,000 | |
| February 17 | 3:52 PM EST | EF1 | Carroll, GA | 4.0 | 150 | $150,000 | ||
| February 17 | 2:58 PM CST | EF3 | Autauga, AL | 14.7 | 440 | 50 | $10 million | |
| February 17 | 3:40 PM CST | EF2 | Russell, AL to GA | 17.1 | 1,000 | 4 | $140,000 | |
| February 17 | 5:05 PM EST | EF0 | Chattahoochee, GA | 48.5 | 100 | $310,000 | ||
| February 17 | 4:17 PM CST | EF1 | Barbour, AL | 21.4 | 75 | $35,000 | ||
| February 17 | 4:38 PM CST | EF0 | Barbour, AL | 0.4 | 300 | $6,000 | ||
| February 17 | 6:18 PM EST | EF1 | Crawford, GA | 10.0 | 250 | 8 | $550,000 | |
| February 17 | 7:01 PM EST | EF0 | Jones, GA | 2.4 | 50 | $50,000 |
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.