EF2 tornado, Ft Drum, Florida, April 6, 2017

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

April 6, 2017

Touchdown

9:51 AM EDT (13:51 UTC)

Lifted

10:01 AM EDT (14:01 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

4.1 miles (6.6 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

County

Okeechobee County

Touchdown point

27.574, -80.835

Lift-off point

27.574, -80.768

Record number

1704060751-01

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MLB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The highest wind the damage implies is 88 mph.

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

During the early morning hours, a strong thunderstorm along a decaying squall line produced localized wind damage in the town of Lady Lake. Tree damage occurred, along with very minor damage to one home. ||As the squall line continued to sag southward, it became reinvigorated toward mid morning. A cluster of strong storms formed into a bow echo as it approached the Kissimmee River near the border of southwest Osceola and northwest Okeechobee Counties. Very strong straight line winds destroyed two recreational vehicles within the Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park and resulted in two injuries. As the cell continued east, a tornado developed and impacted Fort Drum with EF-2 damage to several mobile homes and numerous trees.

A NWS damage survey found that tornado damage began in Fort Drum, just west of US-441 and NW 358th Boulevard. The tornado continued eastward for 4.1 miles, crossing Highway 441 and the Florida Turnpike before dissipating. While much of the path occurred through an unpopulated area, several streets and mobile homes were impacted. Three mobile homes were destroyed, 1 sustained major damage, 13 had minor damage and an additional two were affected. Many trees were snapped, twisted above the base or uprooted. The tornado reached peak intensity just east of Highway 441, where mobile home and tree damage suggested winds reached near 115 mph (EF-2). There were no casualties as most of the residents in the affected area were not at home during the tornado. DI3, DOD8, EXP-LB; DI27, DOD4, EXP-UB.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:31 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:15 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:43 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 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.

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:51 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 2017 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.