Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2018
EF0 tornado, Barrineau Park, Florida, April 22, 2018
This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Escambia County on April 22, 2018, touching down at 1:02 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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 22, 2018
- Touchdown
- 1:02 PM CDT (18:02 UTC)
- Lifted
- 1:03 PM CDT (18:03 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $50,000
- County
- Escambia County
- Touchdown point
- 30.732, -87.389
- Lift-off point
- 30.734, -87.389
- Record number
- 1804221202-01
The damage survey
3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.
- Damage to shed south of Crabtree Church Road.
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 strong upper level system combined with a moist and unstable air mass to generate strong and severe thunderstorms across the area. The storms produced several weak tornadoes along with wind damage.
There was a brief EF-0 track on Crabtree Church Road. One home suffered single damage and a broken window and a mobile home was shifted on its foundation. There were also several uprooted small trees and numerous large branches broken.
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:25 UTC | 21:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | MOB |
| 20:49 UTC | 21:14 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB |
| 21:01 UTC | 21:12 UTC | Tornado Warning | MOB |
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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:11 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 Mobile radar (KMOB), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:02 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:02 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 1 W Molino | Escambia, FL | VIDEO OF A FUNNEL CLOUD IN MOLINO, FL SEEN ON SOCIAL MEDIA. |
| 18:02 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 1 W Molino | Escambia, FL | VIDEO OF A FUNNEL CLOUD IN MOLINO, FL SEEN ON SOCIAL MEDIA. |
| 18:02 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 W Molino | Escambia, FL | FIRE CHIEF REPORTS A HOME WITH MISSING SHINGLES WITH DOWNED POWERLINES AND TREE DEBRIS OVER THE ROAD IN MOLINO, FL. |
| 18:02 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 W Molino | Escambia, FL | FIRE CHIEF REPORTS A HOME WITH MISSING SHINGLES WITH DOWNED POWERLINES AND TREE DEBRIS OVER THE ROAD IN MOLINO, FL. |
| 18:02 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ne Barrineau Park | Escambia, FL | A BRIEF EF-0 TORNADO OCCURRED ON CRABTREE CHURCH RD. ONE HOME EXPERIENCED SHINGLE DAMAGE AND A BROKEN WINDOW AND A MOBILE HOME WAS SHIFTED ON ITS FOUNDATION. THERE WERE SEVERAL SMALL TREES UPROOTED AND NUMEROUS LARGE BRA |
| 18:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Wnw Molino | Escambia, FL | AT LEAST 5 STRUCTURES WITH DAMAGE AND SEVERAL DOWNED TREES AND POWER LINES ALONG CRABTREE CHURCH ROAD. REPORTS AND PICTURES VIA NORTHESCAMBIA ONLINE NEWSPAPER AND SOCIAL MEDIA. |
| 21:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Gonzalez | Escambia, FL | LARGE BRANCHES SNAPPED AND A FENCE BLOWN OVER IN THE BROOKSIDE HILLS SUBDIVISON. |
| 21:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Gonzalez | Escambia, FL | LARGE BRANCHES SNAPPED AND A FENCE BLOWN OVER IN THE BROOKSIDE HILLS SUBDIVISON. |
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 22, 2018
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 22 | 9:47 AM CDT | EF1 | Lafourche Parish, LA | 7.2 | 75 | |||
| April 22 | 10:25 AM CDT | EF0 | Jefferson Parish, LA | 1.3 | 30 | |||
| April 22 | 1:11 PM CDT | EF0 | Dale, AL | 1.2 | 100 | $1,000 | ||
| April 22 | 1:43 PM CDT | EF1 | Crenshaw, AL | 3.7 | 150 | $100,000 | ||
| April 22 | 2:11 PM CDT | EF1 | Crenshaw, AL | 2.2 | 175 | $100,000 | ||
| April 22 | 2:25 PM CDT | EF0 | Montgomery, AL | 2.6 | 250 | |||
| April 22 | 3:05 PM CDT | EF0 | Baldwin, AL | 0.2 | 25 | $25,000 | ||
| April 22 | 3:25 PM CDT | EF0 | Baldwin, AL | 1.6 | 100 | 3 | $100,000 | |
| April 22 | 3:38 PM CDT | EF0 | Baldwin, AL | 1.0 | 100 | $25,000 | ||
| April 22 | 4:13 PM CDT | EF1 | Okaloosa, FL | 1.2 | 50 | 2 | $500,000 |
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.