EF3 tornado, Baum to Lloyd, Florida, March 3, 2019

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

March 3, 2019

Touchdown

8:18 PM EST (01:18 UTC)

Lifted

8:31 PM EST (01:31 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

8.8 miles (14.2 km)

Path width

700 yards (640 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

Counties

Leon and Jefferson counties

Touchdown point

30.493, -84.126

Lift-off point

30.509, -83.979

Record number

1903031918-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 140 mph.

• one interior room and chimney left standing. was a large wood frame home.

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

This event featured all modes of severe weather in our forecast area, including 13 tornadoes, numerous reports of straight-line wind damage, and even large hail. The 13 tornadoes consisted of 1 EF3, 2 EF2s, 6 EF1s, and 4 EF0s. This is a very high number of tornadoes for our forecast area for a single event. This compares with 7 tornadoes in the 1/22/17 event, 8 tornadoes in the 1/2/17 event, and 10 tornadoes in the 3/1/07 event. This may have been the most tornadoes for a single event in our area since the Hurricane Ivan tornadoes back in 2004. The synoptic pattern was characterized by a fast-moving upper trough through relatively zonal flow. The forecast area was under the favorable right entrance region of the upper jet with lots of upper level divergence. An 850 mb jet near or in excess of 50 knots was also present, which is another typical ingredient for severe weather in this part of the country in the cool season. Cool season levels of shear (0-1 km shear > 30 knots and 0-6 km shear > 50 knots) were overlaid with moderate levels of instability (SBCAPE 1500 j/kg), as opposed to more typical winter SBCAPE < 500 j/kg. Without this strong low-level jet, the low-level shear values would have been weaker and we would have probably seen less tornadoes.

A EF-3 tornado, with maximum winds of 140 mph, that tracked 6.5 miles across far Eastern Leon County and into extreme Western Jefferson County. This tornado initially touched down near the intersection of US-90 and Crump Road in eastern Leon County.|Damage in this area was limited primarily to snapped trees. The tornado intensified after moving east of US-90 and destroyed an outbuilding on Wadesboro Rd just west of Baum Road. After crossing Baum Road, the tornado reached peak intensity in the vicinity of Steeds Run. In this area two homes were destroyed. Damage with both homes was consistent with a low-end EF-3 tornado. All exterior walls were collapsed and some of the debris was blown well off the foundation. Additionally, cars located near a home were lofted and moved from a parked position in front of the home. Maximum winds in this area were estimated at 140 mph. The tornado continued moving east and began to weaken. Even so, damage in far Eastern Leon County on Jefferson Rd South near Driftwood Circle was still significant with multiple power poles snapped and numerous trees snapped or uprooted. The tornado continued moving east and crossed into Jefferson County near Tradition Way. Numerous pine trees in this area were snapped between 6 and 10 feet above the ground.||From a historical perspective, this is the second tornado rated F3 or EF3 in Leon County since 1945. Accordingly, this makes the March 3rd tornado the 2nd strongest tornado to affect Leon County since 1945. Damage cost was estimated.

This is a continuation of the Leon county tornado. The Jefferson county portion of this tornado was rated EF2 due to significant tree damage in the area. The tornado continued moving east and crossed into Jefferson County near Tradition Way. Numerous pine trees in this area were snapped between 6 and 10 feet above the ground.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:06 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:32 UTC and running to 02:14 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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 Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 29 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:18 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 2019 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

44 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.