EF1 tornado, Pond Creek to Glendale, 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 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

April 10, 2021

Touchdown

6:23 AM CDT (11:23 UTC)

Lifted

6:40 AM CDT (11:40 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

15.8 miles (25.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Walton County

Touchdown point

30.785, -86.364

Lift-off point

30.851, -86.110

Record number

2104100523-01

36 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 95 mph.

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 touched down in the vicinity of Crowder Chapel and Hinote Roads near the Shoal River. Several large trees were snapped or uprooted in this area. The tornado then moved east northeast snapping and uprooting several more trees along its path. One property on County Highway 1084 sustained roof damage to the primary residence, a well-built single family home. A large metal building system on the property had large garage doors blown in with subsequent uplift and removal of a substantial portion of the roof. A small garage was also destroyed. A bit further down the highway, another metal building system had a portion of its roof rolled back. The tornado lifted near County Highway 83 just south of Glendale. Damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado with maximum estimated winds around 95 mph.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:18 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:30 UTC and running to 14:20 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:34 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), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:21 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.