Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2012

EF1 tornado, Ivan, Florida, July 29, 2012

This EF1 tornado ran 2.5 miles across Wakulla County on July 29, 2012, touching down at 6:40 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
July 29, 2012
Touchdown
6:40 PM EDT (22:40 UTC)
Lifted
6:44 PM EDT (22:44 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
2.5 miles (4.0 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Wakulla County
Touchdown point
30.230, -84.400
Lift-off point
30.220, -84.360
Record number
1207291640-01

The damage survey

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 mph.

  • Stokley road east of powerlines

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

Scattered diurnal convection occurred for the last few days of the month. An unusual event for July occurred in Wakulla county when a brief tornado touched down with one of the storms in the early evening hours. The 00z KTAE sounding revealed a localized area of stronger low level shear in the area which likely contributed to this event occurring.

The damage path from this tornado was not continuous from where the tornado first touched down along Forest Road 313. The tornado skipped along the path causing an inconsistent damage path. The bulk of the damage caused by this tornado was in the EF0 range. However, the most significant damage occurred along Stokely Road near the intersection of David Kinsey Road. Damage in and near this location was consistent with EF1. Two homes reported damage as a result of fallen trees. Damage to these homes was estimated from moderate to major. Numerous power lines were down and residents reported power outages lasting longer than seven hours.

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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.

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 12:00Z

10.7 hours before the tornado, 21 km from the path. July 29, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2012-07-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2352 joules per kilogram, CIN -29, lifted condensation level 696 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2012-07-29The 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 27 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 knots.1939Sfc1 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
2352 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-29 J/kg
Surface CAPE
819 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
696 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
27 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
32 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 00:00Z

1.3 hours after it, 21 km from the path. July 30, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2012-07-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2003 joules per kilogram, CIN -57, lifted condensation level 843 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2012-07-30The 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 108 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 knots.1939Sfc1 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
2003 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-57 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1453 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
843 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
108 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
88 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Tallahassee Regional (TLH), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:53 UTC9472130° 7 kt151013.9
21:27 UTC89.677140° 8 kt1013.9TS
21:53 UTC887670° 6 kt1013.9TS
22:53 UTC7973180° 11 kt171015.9TS
23:53 UTC78710° 0 kt1015.6TS
00:22 UTC78.871.6150° 5 kt1015.9

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

The radar

The Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 20 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:38 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
22:43 UTCTORNADO3 Nne CrawfordvilleWakulla, FLCOUNTY DISPATCHER REPORTS NUMEROUS TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN. FIRST RESPONDERS ARE ON THE WAY TO THE SCENE
22:43 UTCTORNADO4 N CrawfordvilleWakulla, FLLARGE TREE DOWN ON HOUSE, JUST OFF WHIDDON LAKE ROAD

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

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.