Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2021

EF0 tornado, Arran, Florida, September 8, 2021

This EF0 tornado ran 1.4 miles across Wakulla County on September 8, 2021, touching down at 9:08 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
September 8, 2021
Touchdown
9:08 PM EDT (01:08 UTC)
Lifted
9:13 PM EDT (01:13 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
1.4 miles (2.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Wakulla County
Touchdown point
30.160, -84.450
Lift-off point
30.177, -84.463
Record number
2109081908-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Tropical Storm Mindy developed just southwest of the area and moved northeastward, bringing with it heavy rain and gusty winds with several reports of trees and power lines down and some flooding. Two homes were damaged in Leon county from falling trees, but no injuries were reported. One brief tornado occurred in a rural, forested area of Wakulla county with no structural damage.

A brief tornado touched down in a forested area of rural Wakulla county and tracked across Forest Road 365 before lifting. There were no structures in the path to damage, and only tree damage occurred. A tornadic debris signature (TDS) was observed on TLH radar.

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

The warnings

0 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:08 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:21 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:08 UTC01:21 UTCTornado WarningTAE

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:36 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 air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 00:00Z

1.1 hours before the tornado, 30 km from the path. September 9, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2021-09-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 35 joules per kilogram, CIN -78, lifted condensation level 965 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2021-09-09The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 94 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
35 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-78 J/kg
Surface CAPE
916 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
965 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
94 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
129 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 12:00Z

10.9 hours after it, 30 km from the path. September 9, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2021-09-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -74924, lifted condensation level 779 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2021-09-09The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 96 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 8 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-74924 J/kg
Surface CAPE
151 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
779 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
96 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
88 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 28 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:09 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
01:30 UTCTROPICAL STORMAlligator PointFranklin, FLA WEATHERFLOW STATION REPORTED A WIND GUST OF 40 MPH.
02:06 UTCTROPICAL STORM4 Wsw Saint TeresaFranklin, FLTHE FSU COASTAL AND MARINE LAB WEATHERSTEM REPORTED A 10 MINUTE WIND GUST OF 41 MPH.
02:25 UTCTROPICAL STORMAlligator PointFranklin, FLMESONET STATION REPORTED A WIND GUST OF 46 MPH.
02:50 UTCTROPICAL STORMAlligator PointFranklin, FLA MESONET STATION ON ALLIGATOR POINT MEASURED A WIND GUST OF 58 MPH.
03:07 UTCTROPICAL STORM4 Wsw Saint TeresaFranklin, FLA MESONET AT THE FSU COASTAL AND MARINE LAB MEASURED A WIND GUST OF 50 MPH.
03:15 UTCTROPICAL STORM1 Nnw Carrabelle BeachFranklin, FLA MESONET MEASURED A WIND GUST TO 39 MPH.
03:25 UTCTROPICAL STORMAlligator PointFranklin, FLA MESONET STATION ON ALLIGATOR POINT MEASURED A SUSTAINED WIND GUST OF 45 MPH.
03:25 UTCTROPICAL STORMAlligator PointFranklin, FLA MESONET STATION ON ALLIGATOR POINT MEASURED A SUSTAINED WIND OF 45 MPH.
03:25 UTCTROPICAL STORMAlligator PointFranklin, FLCORRECTS PREVIOUS TROPICAL STORM REPORT FROM ALLIGATOR POINT. A MESONET STATION ON ALLIGATOR POINT MEASURED A SUSTAINED WIND OF 45 MPH.
03:35 UTCTROPICAL STORM3 Ese Panacea-Wakulla AWakulla, FLA MESONET MEASURED A WIND GUST OF 47 MPH.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 8, 2021

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 85:32 PM EDTEF1Snyder, PA0.730
September 85:35 PM EDTEF0Snyder, PA1.430$20,000

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.