Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2015
EF0 tornado, Bruce, Florida, April 19, 2015
This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Walton County on April 19, 2015, touching down at 8:25 AM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF0
- Date
- April 19, 2015
- Touchdown
- 8:25 AM CDT (13:25 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:26 AM CDT (13:26 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.5 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $2,000
- County
- Walton County
- Touchdown point
- 30.490, -85.950
- Lift-off point
- 30.494, -85.949
- Record number
- 1504190725-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A line of strong to severe thunderstorms moved across the region on April 19th, bringing with it tornadoes and straight line wind damage. Then on April 20th, another line of severe storms moved from Gulf county eastward through Tallahassee, bringing down numerous trees and power lines along its path, especially in Tallahassee.
A brief tornado was confirmed by a KEVX dual-pol radar debris signature in a rural area west of Bruce. Damage was likely confined to trees with no structural damage reported. This tornado was rated EF0.
A brief EF0 tornado occurred along Highway 81 just north of Bruce. Damage was confined to trees and power lines downed.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
1 minute of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:24 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:48 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 11:57 UTC and running to 15:39 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00 UTC | 19:24 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | TAE |
| 11:57 UTC | 15:39 UTC | Tornado Watch | TAE |
| 12:29 UTC | 13:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | TAE |
| 13:01 UTC | 13:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TAE |
| 13:24 UTC | 13:48 UTC | Tornado Warning | TAE |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:55 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 radar
The Eglin Afb radar (KEVX), 9 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:20 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12:38 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ssw Four Mile Village | Walton, FL | LARGE TREE SNAPPED NEAR THE HILTON SANDESTIN. VIA WMBB-TV METEOROLOGIST. |
| 13:22 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 4 W Bruce | Walton, FL | SHORT EF0 TORNADO PATH CONFIRMED BY NWS DUAL POL RADAR DEBRIS SIGNATURE IN A RURAL AREA WEST OF BRUCE. DAMAGE LIKELY CONFINED TO TREES. ESTIMATED DURATION 3 MINUTES. PATH LENGTH APPROXIMATELY 1 MILE. |
| 13:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Bruce | Walton, FL | POSSIBLE TORNADO. 1/4 MI DAMAGE PATH WITH TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN NEAR BRUCE ALONG HWY 81 N. |
| 13:25 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 1 Nne Bruce | Walton, FL | TREE DAMAGE EARLIER REPORTED BY BROADCAST MEDIA DETERMINED TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH A TORNADO. RATED EF0. 1/4 MILE DAMAGE PATH WITH TREES AND POWER LINES DOWNED ALONG HIGHWAY 81 JUST NORTH OF BRUCE. ESTIMATED 1 MINUTE DURAT |
| 13:42 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ne Bruce | Walton, FL | SOCIAL MEDIA PICTURE OF TREES DOWN ON HIGHWAY 81 JUST NORTH OF HIGHWAY 20. |
| 14:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Chipley | Washington, FL | TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN IN THE NORTHERN PART OF WASHINGTON COUNTY |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 19, 2015
21 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 19 | 1:55 AM CDT | EF1 | Beauregard Parish, LA | 1.4 | 50 | $15,000 | ||
| April 19 | 7:19 AM CDT | EF1 | Bullock, AL | 1.1 | 150 | |||
| April 19 | 8:22 AM CDT | EF0 | Walton, FL | 0.3 | 25 | |||
| April 19 | 8:38 AM CDT | EF0 | Cherokee, AL | 3.5 | 200 | |||
| April 19 | 8:43 AM CDT | EF1 | Russell, AL | 0.4 | 188 | |||
| April 19 | 8:46 AM CDT | EF1 | Henry, AL | 2.1 | 300 | $1.0 million | ||
| April 19 | 9:17 AM CDT | EF1 | Russell, AL to GA | 7.6 | 425 | $10,000 | ||
| April 19 | 9:47 AM CDT | EF1 | Houston, FL to AL, GA | 38.7 | 500 | $155,000 | ||
| April 19 | 11:38 AM EDT | EF1 | Sumter, GA | 1.5 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| April 19 | 12:51 PM EDT | EF1 | Leon, FL | 4.6 | 350 | $40,000 | ||
| April 19 | 1:23 PM EDT | EF1 | Laurens, GA | 11.6 | 300 | $75,000 | ||
| April 19 | 2:01 PM EDT | EF0 | Coffee, GA | 3.9 | 60 | $20,000 | ||
| April 19 | 3:42 PM EDT | EF2 | Burke, GA | 4.7 | 200 | |||
| April 19 | 4:10 PM EDT | EF2 | Aiken, SC | 19.5 | 660 | |||
| April 19 | 4:21 PM EDT | EF0 | Edgefield, SC | 2.9 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| April 19 | 4:30 PM EDT | EF1 | Suwannee, FL | 3.6 | 60 | |||
| April 19 | 5:15 PM EDT | EF1 | Lexington, SC | 9.6 | 200 | |||
| April 19 | 5:20 PM EDT | EF1 | Calhoun, SC | 0.3 | 200 | 2 | $200,000 | |
| April 19 | 6:34 PM EDT | EF0 | Darlington, SC | 0.5 | 75 | $32,000 | ||
| April 19 | 5:35 PM CDT | EF1 | Conway, AR | 4.2 | 300 | $50,000 | ||
| April 19 | 10:56 PM EDT | EF0 | Montgomery, OH | 0.9 | 75 | $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.