Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2014

EF1 tornado, Bass, Florida, May 15, 2014

This EF1 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Columbia County on May 15, 2014, touching down at 9:15 AM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
May 15, 2014
Touchdown
9:15 AM EDT (13:15 UTC)
Lifted
9:17 AM EDT (13:17 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Columbia County
Touchdown point
30.162, -82.789
Lift-off point
30.166, -82.785
Record number
1405150715-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A pre-frontal squall in and mesolow tracked across southeast Georgia and northeast Florida in several waters of convection through the day. High instability was present, with upper level forcing in place ahead of a long wave trough. The tornado was a associated with the core of a mesolow that tracked ENE inland from the Gulf Coast and over Columbia county and NE over Charlton County. Very heavy rainfall of 4-6 inches occurred over 24 hours with hourly rainfall rates of 2-3 inches in some locations.

An EF1 tornado with maximum winds of 95 mph caused significant tree damage to properties at the intersection of Pinemount Road and Nugget Road. Many large oak trees were twisted and snapped with large limbs 8-12 inches torn off. Large pine trees were twisted at the bases and toppled. An outbuilding had significant damage. Sheets of metal were strewn across the property. Pieces of lumber were impaled into the pasture land 1 to 2 feet. Large pilings in the ground 1-1.5 ft were lifted out of the ground and dispersed across the property. The cost of damage is unknown.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
08:39 UTC15:03 UTCFlood WatchJAX
11:39 UTC14:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryJAX
14:24 UTC02:11 UTCFlood WarningJAX

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 12:54 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.

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 12:00Z

1.3 hours before the tornado, 111 km from the path. May 15, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2014-05-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1003 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 677 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, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2014-05-15The 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 115 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1003 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1620 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
677 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
115 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
108 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
3.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Moody AFB radar (KVAX), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:12 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
11:25 UTCFLOOD4 Sse Live OakSuwannee, FLEMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTED FLOODING NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF COUNTY ROAD 49 AND 114TH TERRACE. ROAD WAS CLOSED AT THE TIME OF THE REPORT.
12:40 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Nw BellGilchrist, FL911 CALL CENTER REPORTED ONE TREE DOWN ON COUNTY ROAD 341 JUST SOUTH OF COUNTY ROAD 340 NEAR BELL.
12:50 UTCFLOODLive OakSuwannee, FLEMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTING LOCALIZED STREET FLOODING ONGOING IN DOWNTOWN LIVE OAK WITH SOME PROBLEM AREAS BEING BARRICADED BUT NO STREET CLOSURES AT THIS TIME.
13:15 UTCTORNADO 15 Sse WellbornColumbia, FLCONFIRMED TORNADO. EF1 MAGNITUDE WITH MAXIMUM WINDS 95 MPH. PATH LENGTH 0.4 MILES. WIDTH 50 YARDS. OUTBUILDING WITH SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE. MANY LARGE TREES UPROOTED AND SNAPPED.SHEETS OF METAL STREWN ACROSS THE PROPERTY. PI
13:15 UTCTORNADO 15 Sse WellbornColumbia, FLCONFIRMED TORNADO. EF1 MAGNITUDE WITH MAXIMUM WINDS 95 MPH. PATH LENGTH 0.4 MILES. WIDTH 50 YARDS. OUTBUILDING WITH SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE. MANY LARGE TREES UPROOTED AND SNAPPED.SHEETS OF METAL STREWN ACROSS THE PROPERTY. PI
13:18 UTCTORNADO5 Sse WellbornColumbia, FLCONFIRMED TORNADO...STRENGTH TO BE DETERMINED. OUTBUILDING WITH SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE. MANY LARGE TREES UPROOTED. LARGE PIECES OF LUMBER IMPALED IN BUILDINGS. APPROXIMATE WIDTH OF 50 YARDS...WITH APPROXIMATE PATH LENGTH OF
13:24 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Sse WellbornColumbia, FLEMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTED SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO A BARN WITH MINOR DAMAGE TO THE HOME ON THE SAME PROPERTY.
13:30 UTCFLOOD4 Wsw ObrienSuwannee, FLWATER WAS CROSSING THE ROADWAY WITH A LARGE HOLE FORMING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. POSSIBLE SINK HOLD FORMING.
13:30 UTCFLOODBranfordSuwannee, FLSEVERAL ROADS CLOSED DUE TO FLOOD WATERS. WATER WAS AT PINIC TABLE LEVEL IN IVEY MEMORIAL PARK.
13:30 UTCFLOODLive OakSuwannee, FLWIDESPREAD ROAD CLOSURES DUE TO FLOOD WATERS REPORTED IN LIVE OAK...AS WELL AS ROADS ACROSS MANY RURAL AREAS.
14:06 UTCHEAVY RAIN 4Live OakSuwannee, FLOBSERVER MEASURED 4 INCHES OF RAINFALL IN 24 HRS IN LIVE OAK.
15:20 UTCHEAVY RAIN 2.62 S La CrosseAlachua, FLRAINFALL OF 2.6 INCHES WAS MEASURED BY THE FAWN STATION IN ONE HOUR.
15:20 UTCHEAVY RAIN 4.557 Nnw TaylorBaker, FLTHE RAWS STATION AT EDDY TOWER REPORTED A 24 HR RAINFALL TOTAL OF 4.55 INCHES FROM 11 AM WED TO 11 AM THU.
15:20 UTCHEAVY RAIN 4.92White SpringsHamilton, FLOBSERVER MEASURED 4.92 INCHES IN 24 HRS.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 15, 2014

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 156:46 AM EDTEF0Mecklenburg, NC0.540$10,000
May 152:29 PM EDTEF0Miami-Dade, FL0.330
May 156:10 PM EDTEF1Durham, NC0.8150$250,000
May 157:03 PM EDTEF0Clinton, PA0.3100$5,000

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.