EF0 tornado, Mc David, Florida, March 9, 2011

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

March 9, 2011

Touchdown

9:28 AM CST (15:28 UTC)

Lifted

9:33 AM CST (15:33 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.9 km)

Path width

80 yards (73 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Escambia County

Touchdown point

30.869, -87.327

Lift-off point

30.866, -87.319

Record number

1103090928-01

7 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Roof completely blown off the house. House shifted 4 feet off its pier and beam foundation.
• Trees snapped and fell into front of a house.
• Roof blown off of house with walls still standing. Numerous pine trees snapped in half around the home as well. Outbuilding also destroyed.
• Several cedar trees uprooted of snapped in half. Debris from damaged trees blown into a house damaging it.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A powerful cold front brought widespread severe thunderstorms to northwest Florida. These thunderstorms produced many reports of large hail...damaging winds and tornadoes as the system crossed southeast Mississippi, southern Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle.

The tornado touched down near Highway 164 just west of U.S. Highway 29 where it did minor roof damage to two residences and snapped several pine trees. It tracked southeast across Highway 29 lifting near the intersection of Main Street and Railroad Street in McDavid. Eleven homes were damaged. One home on Main Street was shifted off its foundation and had significant roof damage.

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

18 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:10 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 16:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:26 UTC and running to 18:56 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:38 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 Mobile radar (KMOB), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:26 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 2011 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

14 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.