Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2018
EF0 tornado, Allanton, Florida, April 15, 2018
This EF0 tornado ran 1.1 miles across Bay County on April 15, 2018, touching down at 6:09 AM CDT and reaching 60 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1,000 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.
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
- April 15, 2018
- Touchdown
- 6:09 AM CDT (11:09 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:13 AM CDT (11:13 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 1.1 miles (1.8 km)
- Path width
- 60 yards (55 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $1,000
- County
- Bay County
- Touchdown point
- 30.009, -85.521
- Lift-off point
- 30.021, -85.509
- Record number
- 1804150509-01
The damage survey
12 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.
- Photo courtesy Bay County EM.
- Power pole replaced after trees brought down lines and broke pole. Photo courtesy Bay County EM.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A line of strong to severe thunderstorms associated with a cold front moved across the area during the morning hours of April 15th. A strong low level jet enhanced low level shear across the area, and a brief tornado occurred near Tyndall AFB in addition to numerous reports of trees down across northwest Florida.
Damage photos from Bay County Emergency Management indicate that a brief tornado touched won on the eastern portions of Tyndall Air Force Base. The tornado crossed Highway 98 causing damage to pine trees and utility lines. The full length of the path is uncertain given the limited access to the area. The tornado was rated EF0 with max winds near 80 mph and a width of 60 yards.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
0 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:09 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:45 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:58 UTC and running to 12:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18:00 UTC | 12:00 UTC | High Surf Advisory | TAE |
| 03:58 UTC | 12:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | TAE |
| 07:28 UTC | 08:16 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TAE |
| 11:09 UTC | 11:45 UTC | Tornado 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:07 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), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:07 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:55 UTC | TSTM WND GST 54 | Apalachicola Municipal | Franklin, FL | ASOS STATION AAF, APALACHICOLA MUNICIPAL AIRPORT REPORTED A PEAK GUST OF 54 MPH. |
| 11:09 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Wsw Allanton | Bay, FL | BRIEF EF0 TORNADO CROSSED HIGHWAY 98 AND CAUSED DAMAGE TO PINE TREES AND UTILITY LINES. ESTIMATED PATH LENGTH 1.13 MILES AND WIDTH 60 YARDS. |
| 11:12 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Wsw Allanton | Bay, FL | TWO TO THREE TREES DOWN ALONG HIGHWAY 98 NEAR MILE MARKER 133. TREES FELL ON POWER LINES, RESULTING IN DOWNED POWER LINES TOO. |
| 11:12 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Wsw Allanton | Bay, FL | TWO TO THREE TREES DOWN ALONG HIGHWAY 98 NEAR MILE MARKER 133. TREES FELL ON POWER LINES, RESULTING IN DOWNED POWER LINES TOO. POSSIBLE TORNADO. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 15, 2018
18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 15 | 8:55 AM EDT | EF1 | Decatur, GA | 0.5 | 31 | |||
| April 15 | 2:03 PM EDT | EF2 | Lexington, SC | 3.0 | 200 | |||
| April 15 | 2:15 PM EDT | EF0 | Lexington, SC | 0.4 | 100 | |||
| April 15 | 2:16 PM EDT | EF1 | Lexington, SC | 2.3 | 150 | |||
| April 15 | 2:46 PM EDT | EF1 | Fairfield, SC | 4.2 | 100 | |||
| April 15 | 2:58 PM EDT | EF0 | York, SC | 1.1 | 75 | $50,000 | ||
| April 15 | 3:12 PM EDT | EF0 | Pinellas, FL | 0.2 | 20 | $20,000 | ||
| April 15 | 5:03 PM EDT | EF1 | Craig, VA | 0.5 | 150 | $124,000 | ||
| April 15 | 5:07 PM EDT | EF2 | Guilford, NC | 32.8 | 500 | 5 | $67 million | |
| April 15 | 4:51 PM CDT | EF1 | City of Danville, NC to VA | 16.4 | 175 | $3.8 million | ||
| April 15 | 6:10 PM EDT | EF1 | Bedford, VA | 0.7 | 100 | $200,000 | ||
| April 15 | 6:16 PM EDT | EF1 | Summit, OH | 0.1 | 25 | $25,000 | ||
| April 15 | 6:56 PM EDT | EF1 | Campbell, VA | 1.7 | 400 | $100,000 | ||
| April 15 | 7:00 PM EDT | EF3 | City of Lynchburg, VA | 20.4 | 600 | 12 | $20 million | |
| April 15 | 7:38 PM EDT | EF0 | Amherst, VA | 1.5 | 75 | $50,000 | ||
| April 15 | 8:12 PM EDT | EF0 | Monroe, FL | 0.2 | 20 | $200 | ||
| April 15 | 8:12 PM EDT | EF1 | Monroe, FL | 0.9 | 60 | $4,000 | ||
| April 15 | 10:35 PM EDT | EF1 | Wake, NC | 0.7 | 100 | $150,000 |
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.