Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2020

EF1 tornado, Hampton to Lincoln City, Florida, December 24, 2020

Name: EF1 tornado, Hampton to Lincoln City, Florida, December 24, 2020
Start: 2020-12-24T23:16:00.000Z
End: 2020-12-24T23:23:00.000Z
Location: Hampton to Lincoln City, Florida

From Hampton to Lincoln City, this EF1 tornado ran 4.1 miles across Bradford County on December 24, 2020, touching down at 6:16 PM EST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2.

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: December 24, 2020
Touchdown: 6:16 PM EST (23:16 UTC)
Lifted: 6:23 PM EST (23:23 UTC)
On the ground: 7 minutes
Path length: 4.1 miles (6.6 km)
Path width: 100 yards (91 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 2
County: Bradford County
Touchdown point: 29.886, -82.143
Lift-off point: 29.900, -82.076
Record number: 2012241716-01

The damage survey

16 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

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 pre-frontal squall line crossed the local area during the afternoon and into the early evening. Despite the limited instability, strong bulk shear of 50-60 kts and a strong low level jet produced widespread wind damage as a squall line crossed the local area. Wind gusts of 45-66 mph produced widespread tree and power line damage. Three QLCS tornadoes produced damage across NE FL where better surface based instability occurred during the afternoon ahead of the squall line.

A weak tornado touched down just SW of Stark around 6:16 pm. The vortex damaged trees, fences, and roofs on manufactured homes along its 4 mile path. Four people were displaced on Christmas Eve by the tornado. Two people were taken to the hospital as a precaution and later released. The tornado was 100 yards at its widest point with peak winds of 105 mph.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Jacksonville, FL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Dec 24, 5:52 PM EST, 24 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 24, 5:52 PM EST, 24 minutes before

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In the hours before

Local storm report, Dec 24, 5:19 PM EST, 57 minutes before

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Special weather statement, Dec 24, 5:24 PM EST, 52 minutes before

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Local storm report, Dec 24, 5:24 PM EST, 52 minutes before

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Local storm report, Dec 24, 5:25 PM EST, 51 minutes before

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Local storm report, Dec 24, 5:29 PM EST, 47 minutes before

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Local storm report, Dec 24, 6:06 PM EST, 10 minutes before

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The surface observations

Keystone Heights (42J), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:13 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2020 tornado in Florida Every tornado in Florida since 1950 Warnings in force in Florida now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of December 24, 2020

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
December 24	12:25 AM CST	EF0	Jefferson Davis, MS	2.0	400	$30,000
December 24	1:02 AM CST	EF1	Covington, MS	3.3	100	$18,000
December 24	1:07 AM CST	EF0	Smith, MS	3.4	50	$15,000
December 24	1:17 AM CST	EF0	Jasper, MS	2.7	25	$10,000
December 24	1:26 AM CST	EF1	Jasper, MS	3.9	550	$100,000
December 24	12:16 PM EST	EF0	Columbus, NC	0.1	20	$1,000
December 24	6:45 PM EST	EF1	Duval, FL	0.9	60
December 24	6:54 PM EST	EF1	Duval, FL	0.6	100
December 24	7:30 PM EST	EF1	Clarendon, SC	0.3	50
December 24	11:21 PM EST	EF1	City of Suffolk, VA	0.3	150	$100,000
December 24	11:28 PM EST	EF1	City of Suffolk, VA	2.2	200	$225,000

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.