EF2 tornado, Sunnyside to Lynn Haven, Florida, April 10, 2021

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

April 10, 2021

Touchdown

8:42 AM CDT (13:42 UTC)

Lifted

8:44 AM CDT (13:44 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.7 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Bay County

Touchdown point

30.235, -85.918

Lift-off point

30.235, -85.910

Record number

2104100742-01

22 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.

• 15 poles like this one snapped along a half mile stretch of Hwy 79.
• 2 other condos with similar damage.
• Screen porch destroyed. Whole in roof caused by rooftop condenser landing on roof.
• The bulk of the damage here is actually from the roof from the convenience store landing on the house.

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

Multiple round of showers and thunderstorms ahead of a strong cold front affected the tri-state region during the April 9-10 period. An initial round of storms on April 9th brought primarily large hail to the region, and then a squall line pushed through on April 10th with primarily damaging winds as well as a few tornadoes, mainly across Florida. Some flooding was also reported, mainly across Florida where the heaviest rainfall amounts occurred in a short period of time.

A tornado came ashore near Laguna Beach and heavily damaged a convenience store and a home. This was where the heaviest damage occurred. The convenience store roof was completely torn off of the building and lofted into a nearby house. The concrete block exterior walls were also partially collapsed. It appeared that at least some effort had been made to strap the roof to the walls of the structure, making this damage reflective of an EF2 rating with maximum winds of 125 mph. Behind the convenience store, a house was heavily damaged with portions of the roof missing, but most of the damage to this home came from the roof of the store landing on it. A projectile piece of wood was observed lodged in the side of another nearby home. Several surrounding homes also had minor roof damage, glass breakage, and fencing damaged or torn down. Another home had a carport structure completely collapsed and a wooden shed blown over and rolled into a fence.

Damage was widespread across Lynn Haven Parkway as a line of storms pushed through the area. Despite there being damage well south of the estimated path, much of this damage is estimated to come from straight line winds associated with the squall line. Roof damage to Haney Technical Center and a blown over semi on the Parkway were observed and consistent with these straight line winds. Damage just south of 14th street near the estimated path, including the greatest damage to Grease Pro Express, was found to be consistent with that of a strong EF1 tornado. At that location, the roof was lifted upwards and displaced/rotated about 30 degrees. Similar, but less intense damage, was found at homes near the Grease Pro Express. Outside of this location, minor roof damage was observed at many locations, but none of this damage was consistent with a tornado and the estimated duration of the tornado was very brief, 3 minutes at most. Maximum winds were estimated to be 105 mph.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:30 UTC and running to 15:00 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 12:44 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.

Panama City (ECP), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Eglin Afb radar (KEVX), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:40 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 2021 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.