EF1 tornado, Sunny Hills to Steele City, 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 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

March 3, 2019

Touchdown

5:33 PM CST (23:33 UTC)

Lifted

5:38 PM CST (23:38 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

5.3 miles (8.5 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$105,000

Counties

Washington and Jackson counties

Touchdown point

30.693, -85.478

Lift-off point

30.716, -85.394

Record number

1903031733-01

42 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• shed from house to the south
• damage strewn to the north
• flew from the right about 50 yards
• window busted and indoor door was blown in

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.

An EF-1 tornado touched down about 5 miles to the west of Alford, FL in Washington County. It proceeded northeast with multiple structures damaged throughout Washington County, mostly uplift of tin roofing material. Many freshly snapped trees were also seen in Washington County. At one residence, all of the tin roofing material was thrown across the street into the neighbors yard as all as a completely shredded trampoline, a dog pin that was 100 feet to the northeast and a collapsed garage door. The highest degree of damage was at a house near the county border with Jackson County where much of the tin was ripped from the roof, a small barn tumbled about 50 feet to the northeast as well as a metal canopy moving about 75 feet to the northeast. The tornado continued to move into Jackson County, FL and lifting about 1.5 miles north of Alford, FL. In Jackson County, the main damage was also to the tin roofing material with at least one double wide seeing all of the wood, shingles and tin removed from a quarter of the house. At another residence, a small outbuilding was lifted, flipped over and landed up against the house, completely destroyed. A few snapped and uprooted trees were also noted in Jackson county. Damage cost was estimated.

This is a continuation of the EF1 tornado from Washington county. In Jackson County, the main damage was also to the tin roofing material with at least one double wide seeing all of the wood, shingles and tin removed from a quarter of the house. At another residence, a small outbuilding was lifted, flipped over and landed up against the house, completely destroyed. A few snapped and uprooted trees were also noted in Jackson county. Damage cost was estimated.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:29 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:25 UTC and running to 00:06 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 20:00 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 Eglin Afb radar (KEVX), 49 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:32 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.