EF1 tornado, Capitola to Baum, Florida, March 7, 2008

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 mphthis tornado

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

3. 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.

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.

Rating

EF1

Date

March 7, 2008

Touchdown

7:25 AM EST (12:25 UTC)

Lifted

7:30 AM EST (12:30 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

4.6 miles (7.4 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$750,000

County

Leon County

Touchdown point

30.449, -84.091

Lift-off point

30.510, -84.061

Record number

0803070625-01

A brief, but extensive severe weather episode occurred across the Florida Big Bend during the morning of March 7, 2008. There were widespread reports of straight line wind damage across the area, with two confirmed tornadoes reported by NWS survey teams. There was also some urban street flooding in Tallahassee. Nearly 10,000 Tallahassee customers were without power.

A tornado touched down just west of Capitola near Capitola and Baum Roads, and downed trees and power lines. It then traveled northeast across Capitola and severely damaged eight homes on Whitehouse and Capitola Roads. One person was injured and transported to a local hospital. Downed trees and power lines closed Whitehouse Road at Eva Road, Bucklake Road at Epping Forest Road, Dayflower Circle at Blackberry Lane, and Jefferson Road at Roalde Road. Several homes were damaged with downed trees and power lines on Turkey Roost Road just north of Interstate 10. The tornado lifted just northeast of Wadesboro near Wadesboro Road.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

20 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:05 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 12:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 11:47 UTC and running to 15:10 UTC.

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 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 05:59 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 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.

Tallahassee Regional (TLH), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:25 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.