EF1 tornado, Wewahitchka to Stonemill Creek, Florida, November 26, 2013

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

November 26, 2013

Touchdown

9:00 AM CST (15:00 UTC)

Lifted

9:05 AM CST (15:05 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.9 miles (4.7 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Gulf County

Touchdown point

30.087, -85.190

Lift-off point

30.127, -85.175

Record number

1311260900-01

7 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 94 mph.

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

A surface low deepened and tracked northeastward through the Florida Panhandle and southern Georgia during the morning hours. Ahead of this low, a warm front was able to move northward and bring an unstable airmass into portions of the Florida Panhandle. Strong shear in place aided in the development of isolated severe thunderstorms with a couple of weak tornadoes and straight line wind damage reports.

This tornado was rated as an EF1 with max winds estimated around 95 mph and a path length of 2.92 miles. Damage consisted primarily of trees snapped and uprooted with power lines down, but there was also some structural damage to outbuildings and homes. The tornado tracked through the Land's Landing area and through Cochran Landing and out at Cox Landing. The worst damage was on Cox Landing Road where one home and vehicle suffered significant damage. The homeowner's boat was also blown away by the tornado and was missing. The homeowner was not home at the time. At least a few people witnessed this tornado, and dual-pol radar showed a well defined tornado debris signature (TDS) with this storm extending up to around 10,000 ft. Monetary damage was estimated.

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

14 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 14:46 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 15:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 14:54 UTC and running to 21:14 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 12:50 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.

Tyndall Afb (PAM), 38 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Eglin Afb radar (KEVX), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:01 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 2013 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

3 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.