Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2017
EF1 tornado, Saint Johns County, Florida, September 10, 2017
This EF1 tornado ran 5.0 miles across Saint Johns County on September 10, 2017, touching down at 7:50 PM EDT and reaching 200 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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- September 10, 2017
- Touchdown
- 7:50 PM EDT (23:50 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:56 PM EDT (23:56 UTC)
- On the ground
- 6 minutes
- Path length
- 5.0 miles (8.0 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Saint Johns County
- Touchdown point
- 29.930, -81.300
- Lift-off point
- 29.950, -81.380
- Record number
- 1709101750-01
The warnings
8 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:42 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:02 UTC and running to 03:50 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:18 UTC | 12:51 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 15:57 UTC | 19:00 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 16:02 UTC | 03:50 UTC | Tornado Watch | JAX |
| 16:09 UTC | 19:15 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 16:19 UTC | 16:41 UTC | Tornado Warning | JAX |
| 20:39 UTC | 21:03 UTC | Tornado Warning | JAX |
| 20:39 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 20:58 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 21:21 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 23:42 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | JAX |
| 00:06 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 00:09 UTC | 03:15 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 00:10 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | JAX |
| 00:38 UTC | 03:45 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 02:56 UTC | 09:00 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 03:50 UTC | 12:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | JAX |
| 04:26 UTC | 07:30 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 04:49 UTC | 09:45 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | JAX |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:42 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 air that afternoon
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.
Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 12:00Z
11.8 hours before the tornado, 71 km from the path. September 10, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 396 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- 0 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 754 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 476 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 41 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 226 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 297 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.3
- Supercell composite
- 2.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.0 K/km
Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z
0.2 hours after it, 71 km from the path. September 11, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 270 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- 0 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 474 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 514 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 39 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 42 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 282 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 319 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 2.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.3 K/km
The radar
The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:49 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:37 UTC | TROPICAL STORM | 3 Wnw Vilano Beach | St. Johns, FL | ASOS MEASURED WIND GUST OF 55 MPH. |
| 21:50 UTC | TROPICAL STORM | 2 N Mayport | Amz452, FL | MESONET STATION MEASURED SUSTAINED WIND OF 45 MPH FROM THE NE WITH A GUST OF 54 MPH. |
| 22:30 UTC | TROPICAL STORM | 1 Nne Flagler Beach | Flagler, FL | STORM SPOTTER WITH FIXED ANEMOMETER MEASURED A WIND GUST OF 50 MPH. |
| 23:35 UTC | TROPICAL STORM | 1 Nne Jacksonville Beac | Amz452, FL | MESONET STATION MEASURED SUSTAINED OF 43 MPH FROM THE NE WITH A GUST OF 55 MPH. |
| 23:40 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 50 | 2 Nw St. Augustine | St. Johns, FL | MESONET STATION MEASURED SUSTAINED OF 30 MPH FROM THE NNE WITH A GUST OF 50 MPH. |
| 23:50 UTC | TORNADO | 1 N Vilano Beach | St. Johns, FL | THIS TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ON VILLANO BEACH NEAR 4TH AND 5TH STREET CAUSING MINOR TREE DAMAGE AS IT MOVED WEST. AFTER CROSSING THE INTER-COASTAL WATERWAY THE TORNADO INTENSIFIED TO EF-1 WITH 85-100MPH WINDS AND SNAPPED/UP |
| 23:52 UTC | TORNADO | 4 N St. Augustine | St. Johns, FL | MEDIA PASSED ON REPORT BY PUBLIC OF POSSIBLE TORNADO AT VILANO BEACH AT 4TH STREET. |
| 23:53 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Nnw St. Augustine | St. Johns, FL | MULTIPLE TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN. ROOF DAMAGE ON 5TH AVENUE NEAR VILLANO BEACH. |
| 00:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Wnw Vilano Beach | St. Johns, FL | PUBLIC REPORT OF WIND DAMAGE. TORNADO REPORT EAST OF THIS LOCATION SO POTENTIALLY MORE TORNADO DAMAGE. |
| 00:20 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Sse Marineland | Flagler, FL | THIS TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN NORTHERN FLAGLER COUNTY JUST SOUTH OF MARINELAND. DAMAGE WAS LIMITED TO TREES WITH A TORNADIC DEBRIS SIGNATURE NOTED ON KJAX RADAR. THE TORNADO REMAINED OVER THE PELLICER CREEK CONSERVATION A |
| 00:46 UTC | TROPICAL STORM | 5 Nnw St. Augustine | St. Johns, FL | AWOS STATION MEASURED A WIND GUST OF 58 MPH. |
| 01:05 UTC | TROPICAL STORM | Flagler Beach | Flagler, FL | TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED A WIND GUST OF 60 MPH. |
| 01:20 UTC | TROPICAL STORM | 2 Wnw Fort Caroline | Duval, FL | MESONET STATION MEASURED SUSTAINED WINDS OF 35 MPH FROM THE NE WITH A GUST OF 50 MPH. |
| 01:40 UTC | FLOOD | 5 Se Andalusia | Flagler, FL | A NUMBER OF SECONDARY ROADS IN THE DAYTONA NORTH AREA ARE IMPASSABLE. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of September 10, 2017
15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 10 | 8:59 AM EDT | EF1 | Hardee, FL | 0.0 | 50 | $40,000 | ||
| September 10 | 9:19 AM EDT | EF0 | Brevard, FL | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| September 10 | 11:00 AM EDT | EF1 | Brevard, FL | 1.3 | 75 | |||
| September 10 | 11:19 AM EDT | EF2 | Polk, FL | 0.6 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| September 10 | 11:24 AM EDT | EF1 | Brevard, FL | 1.2 | 75 | |||
| September 10 | 1:40 PM EDT | EF1 | Saint Johns, FL | 1.2 | 50 | |||
| September 10 | 5:48 PM EDT | EF2 | Brevard, FL | 1.6 | 125 | |||
| September 10 | 6:00 PM EDT | EF1 | Brevard, FL | 0.5 | 60 | |||
| September 10 | 6:28 PM EDT | EF1 | Lake, FL | 3.8 | 500 | |||
| September 10 | 8:13 PM EDT | EF0 | Flagler, FL | 4.1 | 200 | |||
| September 10 | 9:04 PM EDT | EF1 | Volusia, FL | 0.8 | 175 | |||
| September 10 | 9:04 PM EDT | EF1 | Brevard, FL | 1.2 | 50 | |||
| September 10 | 9:14 PM EDT | EF1 | Brevard, FL | 0.3 | 60 | |||
| September 10 | 9:48 PM EDT | EF1 | Brevard, FL | 3.4 | 60 | |||
| September 10 | 1:15 AM EDT | EF2 | Saint Johns, FL | 1.2 | 300 |
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.