Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2015
EF1 tornado, York to Shady, Florida, April 20, 2015
From York to Shady, this EF1 tornado ran 1.9 miles across Marion County on April 20, 2015, touching down at 3:31 PM EDT and reaching 350 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- April 20, 2015
- Touchdown
- 3:31 PM EDT (19:31 UTC)
- Lifted
- 3:35 PM EDT (19:35 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 1.9 miles (3.1 km)
- Path width
- 350 yards (320 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Marion County
- Touchdown point
- 29.061, -82.271
- Lift-off point
- 29.069, -82.240
- Record number
- 1504201331-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Clusters of severe storms preceded a cold front as it crossed the local area. Hail and gusty winds were the main convective hazards, although a discrete tornado did impact the Palm Cay subdivision in southern Marion County.
An EF1 tornado touched down just east of State Road 200 at the Oak Run Country Club. Spotty EF0 damage was noted throughout the Oak Run neighborhood. The tornado continued on an east to east-northeast path into the Palm Cay subdivision, where it reached its maximum intensity of EF1. Spotter EF0 damage was noted just south of SW 103rd Street at the conclusion of the tornado path, which was about 2 miles in length. The duration of this tornado was likely less than 5 minutes. There was significant roof and tree damage within the small EF1 damage. The cost of damage was 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.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 15:07 UTC and running to 20:49 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15:07 UTC | 20:49 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | JAX |
| 19:31 UTC | 20:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAX |
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. The outlook in force was issued at 17:30 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.
Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 12:00Z
7.5 hours before the tornado, 152 km from the path. April 20, 2015.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 337 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -115 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 496 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1195 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 50 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 106 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 108 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 2.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.9 K/km
Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 00:00Z
4.5 hours after it, 152 km from the path. April 21, 2015.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 26 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -149 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 231 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 815 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 42 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 15 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 85 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- -0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
The radar
The Tampa radar (KTBW), 152 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:31 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19:17 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nnw Citrus Springs | Citrus, FL | LATE REPORT. DOWNED TREE, TREE LIMBS AND PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT TOPPLED OVER. |
| 19:31 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 11 Sw Ocala | Marion, FL | AN EF-1 TORNADO WITH WINDS 70-90 MPH AND APPROX. 1000 FT WIDE... DAMAGED TREES AND HOMES ALONG A 2 MILE PATH THROUGH THE PALM CAY SUBDIVISION OFF OF STATE ROAD 200 SOUTH OF OCALA. |
| 19:31 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 11 Sw Ocala | Marion, FL | AN EF-1 TORNADO WITH WINDS 70-90 MPH AND APPROX. 1000 FT WIDE... DAMAGED TREES AND HOMES IN THE PALM CAY SUBDIVISION OFF OF STATE ROAD 200 SOUTH OF OCALA. |
| 20:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 11 Sw Ocala | Marion, FL | HOMES DAMAGED BY DOWNED TREES AND THUNDERSTORM WINDS IN THE PALM BAY SUBDIVISION OFF OF STATE ROAD 200 SOUTH OF OCALA. APPROXIMATELY 4 TO 5 HOMES HAD DAMAGE. |
| 20:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 11 Sw Ocala | Marion, FL | HOMES DAMAGED BY DOWNED TREES AND THUNDERSTORM WINDS IN THE PALM CAY SUBDIVISION OFF OF STATE ROAD 200 SOUTH OF OCALA. NUMEROUS HOMES SUSTAINED DAMAGE. |
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 20, 2015
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.