EF1 tornado, Lawtey, Florida, February 7, 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 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

February 7, 2017

Touchdown

10:00 PM EST (03:00 UTC)

Lifted

10:01 PM EST (03:01 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.7 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Bradford County

Touchdown point

30.046, -82.073

Lift-off point

30.048, -82.056

Record number

1702072100-01

37 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 97 mph.

• trees down fence down near 301
• there are large tree trunks that are snapped a large branches that are snapped also a roof. Metal roof that was Peal back to several trees leaning on the trail trailer house as well just examining a damage just at this particular point of the damages from south southeast southwest
• local elementary school had cafeteria roof severely damaged.

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

A pre-frontal squall line raced eastward across NE Florida and SE Georgia during the late evening hours producing wind damage across the Suwannee River Valley. A strong embedded storm produced a brief EF1 tornado in Lawtey, then the rear-flank downdraft descended and the resultant outflow cut-off the tornado circulation and produced a derecho wind event with winds of 60-80 mph that raced across northern Clay county, southern Duval county and northern St. Johns county between 10 pm and 11 pm on Feb. 7th. Another very weak and brief tornado was reported in central St. Johns county associated with another storm cells embedded within the squall line. Very cold upper level temperatures aided in strong downburst formation as well as dry air in the mid levels. The cold pool produced a 23 deg temperature drop between 10 pm and 1030 pm in Keystone Heights Florida.

The Lawtey Elementary School experienced wind damage to the roof. The school was closed the following day due to wind damage. There were also numerous trees and power lines blown down and damaged in the area.||Local broadcast media relayed a report that 2 people were injured in Lawtey when part of a building fell on them.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:37 UTC and running to 03:33 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. The outlook in force was issued at 01:15 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.

Keystone Heights (42J), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:00 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

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.