EF1 tornado, Chumuckla, Florida, December 28, 2015

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.

Rating

EF1

Date

December 28, 2015

Touchdown

8:30 AM CST (14:30 UTC)

Lifted

8:32 AM CST (14:32 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.3 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Santa Rosa County

Touchdown point

30.763, -87.237

Lift-off point

30.774, -87.235

Record number

1512280830-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 mph.

• Several pines snapped and several pecan trees uprooted. Width 75 yards. Crew was unable to survey a heavily wooded area south. It's possible the track could extend further southward.

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

A powerful upper level disturbance combined with unseasonably high moisture and instability resulted in a few severe thunderstorms and one brief tornado in the western Florida Panhandle.

A National Weather Service survey team confirmed damage of an EF-1 tornado a little over 2 miles southwest of Chumuckla. The tornado tracked alomst a mile north-northeast before weakening to an EF-0 and dissipating. The team was unable to survey a heavily wooded area to the south. It is possible the track could extend further southward. The tornado tracked through a forested area and across an open field. Damage was generally confined to uprooted pecan trees and well as snapped cedar and pine trees. This damage is consistent with EF-1 wind speeds around 107 mph. The maximum width of the tornado was 75 yards.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 14:19 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 15:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 12:41 UTC and running to 17:05 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 12:47 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.

Whiting Field Nas-N. (NSE), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:29 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 2015 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.