Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2016
EF0 tornado, Caney Creek to Gaskin, Florida, January 22, 2016
From Caney Creek to Gaskin, this EF0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Walton County on January 22, 2016, touching down at 1:44 AM CST and reaching 50 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 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
- January 22, 2016
- Touchdown
- 1:44 AM CST (07:44 UTC)
- Lifted
- 1:49 AM CST (07:49 UTC)
- On the ground
- 5 minutes
- Path length
- 3.0 miles (4.9 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Walton County
- Touchdown point
- 30.897, -86.197
- Lift-off point
- 30.933, -86.169
- Record number
- 1601220144-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A strong upper level trough and surface cold front moved through the region during the early morning hours of January 22nd. A squall line developed ahead of the front and produced some wind damage and a couple of brief tornadoes.
Trees were blown down and a dual-pol tornadic debris signature was observed on KEVX radar along this track. No structural damage was reported in this very rural area. This tornado was rated EF0.
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.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:53 UTC and running to 11:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:53 UTC | 11:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | TAE |
| 01:56 UTC | 02:20 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TAE |
| 06:57 UTC | 08:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TAE |
| 07:45 UTC | 08:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | TAE |
| 07:48 UTC | 08:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | TAE |
| 08:31 UTC | 08:52 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:19 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 surface observations
Florala (0J4), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05:58 UTC | 62 | 59 | 160° 13 kt | 21 | 1008.8 | |
| 06:07 UTC | 62.6 | 59 | 170° 11 kt | 20 | 1008.5 | VCTS |
| 06:23 UTC | 62.6 | 59 | 160° 10 kt | 16 | 1007.5 | -RA |
| 06:58 UTC | 63 | 60 | 160° 7 kt | 15 | 1007.1 | -RA |
| 07:06 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 160° 8 kt | 1006.8 | TSRA | |
| 07:17 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 160° 7 kt | 1006.8 | TSRA | |
| 07:29 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 360° 5 kt | 1007.5 | +TSRA BR | |
| 07:31 UTC | 62.6 | 60.8 | 0° 0 kt | 1007.8 | +TSRA BR | |
| 07:36 UTC | 60.8 | 60.8 | 50° 5 kt | 1007.5 | +TSRA BR | |
| 07:42 UTC | 60.8 | 59 | 3 kt | 1007.1 | +TSRA BR | |
| 07:48 UTC | 62.6 | 59 | 220° 14 kt | 20 | 1007.1 | +TSRA BR |
| 07:52 UTC | 62.6 | 57.2 | 220° 14 kt | 20 | 1007.5 | TSRA BR |
| 07:58 UTC | 61 | 57 | 220° 14 kt | 25 | 1007.5 | TSRA BR |
| 08:03 UTC | 60.8 | 57.2 | 210° 17 kt | 25 | 1007.5 | +TSRA BR |
| 08:48 UTC | 57.2 | 55.4 | 200° 12 kt | 1006.1 | -RA | |
| 08:58 UTC | 59 | 57 | 200° 10 kt | 1005.8 | -RA | |
| 09:07 UTC | 59 | 57.2 | 190° 11 kt | 1005.4 | -RA | |
| 09:42 UTC | 57.2 | 57.2 | 220° 6 kt | 1005.1 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Eglin Afb radar (KEVX), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:43 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 07:41 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Sse Gordon | Walton, FL | TREES DOWN ON HIGHWAY 2 WEST NEAR HIGHWAY 331. |
| 09:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Bonifay | Holmes, FL | ROOF DAMAGE TO TWO BUILDINGS IN BONIFAY. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of January 22, 2016
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 22 | 3:49 AM CST | EF0 | Calhoun, FL | 1.2 | 50 |
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.