Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2015

EF1 tornado, Spring Hollow to Gilberts Mill, Florida, November 2, 2015

From Spring Hollow to Gilberts Mill, this EF1 tornado ran 6.2 miles across Washington County on November 2, 2015, touching down at 10:54 AM CST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $75,000 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
November 2, 2015
Touchdown
10:54 AM CST (16:54 UTC)
Lifted
11:02 AM CST (17:02 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
6.2 miles (10.0 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$75,000
County
Washington County
Touchdown point
30.565, -85.555
Lift-off point
30.622, -85.474
Record number
1511021054-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front moved into the tri-state area with heavy rainfall and some severe weather. In northwest Florida, an EF1 tornado touched down in Washington county with other straight line wind damage in Jackson county. In addition, some flooding occurred in Walton county with over 6 inches of rain measured.

The tornado touched down around Deltona Blvd and Peak Drive, downing a tree and a power line. It tracked northeast to near Washington Blvd and Syfrett Road where the most significant damage occurred. At this location, a tree was uprooted, a portion of a metal roof on a barn was torn off, a garage door was ripped off and caused a hole in the roof of a house, and a greenhouse was destroyed. The tornado continued moving northeast, downing a tree on Highview Circle and quickly lifted thereafter. The tornado was rated EF1 with max winds around 90 mph. It also exhibited a tornadic debris signature on dual-pol radar. Damage cost was estimated.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:56 UTC16:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTAE
16:43 UTC17:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTAE
16:52 UTC17:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTAE
16:57 UTC17:30 UTCTornado WarningTAE

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:16 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), 39 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:53 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
16:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 S BonifayWashington, FLA LARGE TREE WAS BLOWN DOWN ON HIGHWAY 79 BETWEEN BONIFAY AND VERNON.
16:55 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Ese Spring HollowWashington, FLTREES AND POWER LINES WERE BLOWN DOWN NEAR DELTONA BLVD.
17:00 UTCTORNADO3 Ssw Gilberts MillWashington, FLTORNADO TOUCHDOWN AT RUFUS ROAD AND HARTFORD BLVD. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WILL BE ADDED LATER.
17:00 UTCTORNADO4 Ssw Gilberts MillWashington, FLSTRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO A HOME ON SYFRETT RD.
17:27 UTCTSTM WND DMGN MariannaJackson, FLA LARGE TREE WAS BLOWN DOWN ONTO AN UNOCCUPIED HOUSE ON KELSON AVE.
17:35 UTCTSTM WND DMGGreenwoodJackson, FLDOWNED TREES CAUSED POWER OUTAGES IN THE GREENWOOD AREA
17:40 UTCTSTM WND DMGBascomJackson, FLDOWNED TREES CAUSED POWER OUTAGES IN THE BASCOM AREA.

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 November 2, 2015

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 212:49 PM ESTEF0Calhoun, GA2.550
November 21:11 PM ESTEF0Miller, GA0.150$50,000
November 24:06 PM ESTEF1Telfair, GA1.650$25,000
November 24:32 PM ESTEF1Telfair, GA0.850$25,000

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.