Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2022

EF1 tornado, Carrabelle to Lanark Village, Florida, January 15, 2022

From Carrabelle to Lanark Village, this EF1 tornado ran 2.6 miles across Franklin County on January 15, 2022, touching down at 12:22 AM EST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $75,000 of property damage.

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 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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
January 15, 2022
Touchdown
12:22 AM EST (05:22 UTC)
Lifted
12:26 AM EST (05:26 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
2.6 miles (4.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$75,000
County
Franklin County
Touchdown point
29.799, -84.603
Lift-off point
29.828, -84.575
Record number
2201152322-01

The damage survey

1 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.

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong cold front moved through the region during the early morning hours of January 16th. Limited instability kept thunderstorms confined to near the coast. However, a few reports of severe weather did occur along the Florida big bend with one tornado confirmed on Dog Island.

A tornado moved across portions of Dog Island early Sunday morning with damage to one residence reported. The roof was partially torn off with significant damage to the porch. This damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado with winds estimated around 95 mph. In addition, damage to trees and power lines occurred with Duke Energy reporting 97 customers without power on the island. A tornadic debris signature (TDS) was evident on TLH radar.

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

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:19 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:00 UTC20:02 UTCCoastal Flood WarningTAE
00:00 UTC20:28 UTCCoastal Flood WatchTAE
03:00 UTC06:00 UTCWind AdvisoryTAE
05:16 UTC06:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTAE
05:19 UTC06:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:37 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

5.4 hours before the tornado, 71 km from the path. January 16, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2022-01-16Temperature 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 -17308, lifted condensation level 1225 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 00:00Z on 2022-01-16The 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 131 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 71 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
-17308 J/kg
Surface CAPE
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1225 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
71 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
131 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
92 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

6.6 hours after it, 71 km from the path. January 16, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2022-01-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 10 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 685 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2022-01-16The 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 -56 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 73 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
50 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
685 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
73 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-56 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
297 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:21 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
02:35 UTCMARINE TSTM WIND 413 Ese Panacea-Wakulla AWakulla, FL41 MPH MARINE THUNDERSTORM WIND GUST AT TOP SAIL RD VIA WEATHERFLOW.
04:40 UTCMARINE TSTM WIND 401 Nw Shell PointWakulla, FLAMBIENT WEATHER STATION AT OYSTER BAY TOWER MEASURED 40 MPH GUST.
05:23 UTCTORNADO5 Se CarrabelleFranklin, FLONE HOUSE RECEIVED DAMAGE TO THE ROOF, PORCH, LIVING ROOM, AND PARTIAL BEDROOM AREA FROM A TORNADO ON DOG ISLAND. RADAR SHOWED A TDS AS IT MOVED ACROSS THE ISLAND.
05:58 UTCTSTM WND GST 721 Nw Shell PointWakulla, FL72 MPH WIND GUST MEASURED AT OYSTER BAY TOWER.
06:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 E PanaceaWakulla, FLA FEW TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN IN THE BOTTOM ROAD AREA.
06:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGSpring CreekGmz730, FLA FEW TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN IN THE SPRING CREEK AREA.
06:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGSaint MarksWakulla, FLA FEW TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN IN THE SAINT MARKS AREA.
06:46 UTCMARINE TSTM WIND 39Alligator PointFranklin, FL39 MPH WIND MEASURED AT ALLIGATOR POINT VIA WEATHERFLOW.
06:46 UTCMARINE TSTM WIND 424 Wsw Saint TeresaFranklin, FL42 MPH WIND GUST MEASURED AT THE FSU COASTAL AND MARINE LAB.
07:06 UTCMARINE TSTM WIND 43Shell PointWakulla, FL43 MPH WIND GUST MEASURED AT FSWN WAKULLA SHELL POINT BEACH.
07:14 UTCHEAVY RAIN 3.112 Se Plum OrchardWakulla, FLMESONET STATION SAMF1 1.5 SE PLUM ORCHARD, STORM TOTAL SO FAR.
07:14 UTCHEAVY RAIN 3.151 Se Plum OrchardWakulla, FLMESONET STATION SAMF1 ST. MARKS, STORM TOTAL SO FAR.
07:16 UTCMARINE TSTM WIND 43Alligator PointFranklin, FLMESONET STATION FW9222 ALLIGATOR POINT.
08:05 UTCMARINE TSTM WIND 43Alligator PointFranklin, FLFW9222 ALLIGATOR POINT FL VIA WEATHERFLOW.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

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.