EF2 tornado, Kennys Mill to Sycamore, Florida, November 17, 2014

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

November 17, 2014

Touchdown

4:17 AM CST (10:17 UTC)

Lifted

4:49 AM CST (10:49 UTC)

On the ground

32 minutes

Path length

22.2 miles (35.7 km)

Path width

420 yards (384 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$2.0 million

Counties

Calhoun, Liberty and Gadsden counties

Touchdown point

30.402, -85.075

Lift-off point

30.596, -84.777

Record number

1411170417-01

29 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.

• Prison printing facility, east side walls on both floors collapsed. Roof removed.
• Several light poles snapped, and concrete curbs pulled from the ground.
• Roof removed from another prison building.
• Estimated beginning point of the damage path, based on no damage along Highway 71, and no access to these areas SW of the prison.

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

A strong upper level trough and surface cold front moved through the region, bringing a round of severe weather across the area. Isolated supercells developed ahead of the main squall line, and one produced an EF2 tornado in Florida which was the longest continuous damage path in Florida since the Central Florida outbreak of February 1, 2007.

The tornado likely began in a heavily forested area with limited access just SW of the Calhoun Correctional Institution - between the prison grounds and Highway 71. The beginning point was estimated based on the rest of the damage path and a lack of observed damage along Highway 71. The tornado then quickly intensified as it moved into the prison grounds. Several concrete buildings were heavily damaged - including a two-story printing facility. The eastern wall of that particular building was completely collapsed with the roof almost entirely removed. An adjacent concrete building also had large sections of roof removed. The damage to both of these buildings was rated EF2 with maximum estimated winds of 120-130 mph - in the high end of the EF2 range. Other buildings, including some warehouses, were also damaged on the prison grounds. There were some light poles that were snapped, and some trees near the entrance to the facility were also snapped. All of that additional damage was rated EF1. Over 30 cars that were parked in the parking lot by the administrative building were damaged, and some were tossed or rolled as much as 50-100 yards - a few badly crumpled due to impacts. There were some objects driven into the ground near the parking lot as well; an emergency manager also observed a screwdriver driven into the bottom of a flipped vehicle. Some concrete curbs along the parking lot were ripped from the ground.||After moving northeast off the prison grounds, the tornado crossed some forested area near the Apalachicola River, clipping areas along the southern tip of River Road and then crossing Highway 20 just west of the Apalachicola River bridge. There were numerous healthy, large trees that were snapped in the damage path, as well as some power poles. This portion of the damage path was rated EF1 with maximum winds of around 100 MPH. This tornado continued into Liberty county and eventually ended in Gadsden county.||Monetary damage for this tornado was estimated at around $2 million. Structural damage to the prison was estimated at around $1.8 million, but the $1.8 million figure did not include fencing, lighting, or vehicle damage that also occurred.

This is a continuation of the tornado from Calhoun and Liberty counties. The last portion of the damage path was in southwest Gadsden County where the tornado briefly intensified and the damage path narrowed. Another corridor of more significant tree damage was noted near Sycamore Road and Winding Creek Road. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted, and several power poles were snapped. A few homes in this area had some minor damage to the exterior of the structure. Damage in this area was rated EF1. The damage path quickly narrowed thereafter, and the damage became more sporadic, with the last damaged noted along Flat Creek Road just east of Audie Clark Road.||With a total damage path length of 22.3 miles, this was the longest tornado path in the NWS Tallahassee County Warning Area (CWA) since March 1, 2007 (two tornadoes with about a 30mi path length in SE Alabama and SW Georgia during that event).||This is also the longest tornado path in the state of Florida since a February 1, 2007 tornado in Lake and Volusia Counties in central Florida (26 miles).

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

36 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:41 UTC, 36 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:33 UTC and running to 15:00 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 05:43 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.

The Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:19 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.