EF1 tornado, Bayou George, Florida, March 18, 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

March 18, 2021

Touchdown

6:25 AM CDT (11:25 UTC)

Lifted

6:26 AM CDT (11:26 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.4 miles (0.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Bay County

Touchdown point

30.263, -85.529

Lift-off point

30.265, -85.523

Record number

2103180525-01

5 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.

• Several pod containers tossed.
• Fence blown down with 2x4s from neighbors roof penetrating porch roof.
• Roof has been repaired in this photo

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

A strong spring cold front moved through the tri-state region. A squall line preceded the front with scattered reports of severe weather, including a few tornadoes.

The tornado touched down along the north shore of a small lake near S. Lake Joanna Dr. and Sweet Lane. The tornado travelled east-northeast across the lake, producing EF1 damage to a home at the northeast end of the lake in the 7300 block of S. Lake Joanna Dr, including removal of a back porch canopy roof and causing a sizable opening in the main roof of the home. Debris from this house peppered another nearby home, with two 2x4s puncturing its back porch awning. The tornado crossed east-northeast across Bayou George Dr. On the other side of Bayou George Dr. the tornado hit a PODS storage yard, where PODS were originally in 3-high stacks. Some of the PODS shifted, and one POD unit was tossed. The tornado then lifted. Tornado damage at the home at the east-northeast end of the lake in the 7300 block of S. Lake Joanna Drive is consistent with a tornado of EF1 strength with max winds around 95 mph.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:02 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 04:02 UTC and running to 11:55 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 05:48 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), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:23 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

15 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.