EF0 tornado, Sapp, Florida, November 17, 2014

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

November 17, 2014

Touchdown

1:00 PM EST (18:00 UTC)

Lifted

1:10 PM EST (18:10 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.3 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$15,000

County

Baker County

Touchdown point

30.145, -82.282

Lift-off point

30.150, -82.270

Record number

1411171200-01

A strong pre-frontal squall line crossed the area late morning through mid afternoon. Strong wind shear and helicity promoted rotation cells as well as bowing line segments. One comma-head storm formed along the Interstate 10 corridor near Live Oak, and this cell raced eastward toward Jacksonville. The storm had a long-lived mesocylone, and the rear flank downdraft descended downward several times causing brief periods of strong low level rotation which caused a few tornado touchdowns. The RFD produced strong winds of 50-80 mph and caused widespread tree damage and some structural damage as the comma-head raced across north Florida, including the Jacksonville metro area.

A convergent track of tree damage occurred from Boyce Road to Steed Road in Glen St. Mary. Several trees were snapped and uprooted, and one shed was destroyed and damage was done to a carport. Power lines were damaged. The cost of damage was unknown, but it was estimated for Storm Data.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:43 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:00 UTC and running to 20:08 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 16:32 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.

Lake City (LCQ), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 67 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:00 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 2014 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

9 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.