EF0 tornado, Mossy Head to Liberty, Florida, November 18, 2015

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 18, 2015

Touchdown

12:05 PM CST (18:05 UTC)

Lifted

12:07 PM CST (18:07 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.1 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Walton County

Touchdown point

30.823, -86.228

Lift-off point

30.824, -86.227

Record number

1511181205-01

A strong upper level trough and surface cold front affected the region during November 18th. Three tornadoes were confirmed in northwest Florida.

A brief tornado touched down on Eglin Air Force Base property in western Walton county. There are no structures in this area to impact, but a brief dual-pol tornadic debris signature was observed on KEVX radar with the storm. A soil conservation technician from Eglin AFB was dispatched to investigate the area for any signs of a tornado. The technician found green twigs of swampbay magnolia (Magnolia Virginiana) that were displaced 200 yards downstream from where they grow at the exact coordinates of the tornadic debris signature seen on dual-pol radar. The tornado was rated EF0.

The public reported sighting a brief tornado touchdown near Highway 331 north of the Eglin AFB territory in western Walton county. The tornado did not produce any structural damage. This was the same thunderstorm that produced the brief tornado and dual-pol tornadic debris signature while over the Eglin AFB territory.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:00 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 14:29 UTC and running to 20:16 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 16:28 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.

DeFuniak (54J), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Eglin Afb radar (KEVX), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:06 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

15 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.