EF0 tornado, Marco to Golden Gate, Florida, January 16, 2022

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

January 16, 2022

Touchdown

9:07 AM EST (14:07 UTC)

Lifted

9:34 AM EST (14:34 UTC)

On the ground

27 minutes

Path length

15.0 miles (24.1 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$20,000

County

Collier County

Touchdown point

26.020, -81.767

Lift-off point

26.160, -81.590

Record number

2201160807-01

14 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MFL, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Overturned Semi-Truck & Footage from FHP dashcam of tornado crossing the interstate. Semi-truck driver sustained minor injuries via FHP SWFL Twitter.
• Oak tree uprooted and leaning to the east.
• Palm tree fell to the west
• Small palm tree uprooted to the WSW

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

An area of low pressure moving across the SE United States dragged its associated cold front across the FL peninsula, bringing severe thunderstorms to the region. A band of thunderstorms moved through the area, with strong winds aloft providing the necessary ingredients for a few waterspouts/tornadoes as well as strong and gusty straight line winds.

Video from the public at Isle of Capri shared via social media captured the tornado as a waterspout before it came ashore. Surveyed tornado damage was found in the Victoria Falls neighborhood west of Collier Blvd and south of Tamiami Trail. A total of 20 homes sustained at least minor damage. Several uprooted trees, broken large branches, and at least two homes with tarps on roofs indicative of roof damage were observed in this neighborhood. ||Tornado damage was also observed north of Tamiami Trail in Lely Resort. Here, the surveyed damage was mainly in the form of a few uprooted small trees, one uprooted palm tree, and broken large tree branches. The tops of a few palm trees were partially sheared off at the crown with only a few fronds remaining as well. A street sign was knocked over on Palmer Ct in Lely Resort. ||As the cell moved to the northeast, the tornado eventually crossed Interstate 75 near mile marker 96 where it blew over a semi-tractor trailer, injuring the driver, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Estimated peak wind of 85 mph - high-end EF-0.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS MFL issued a tornado warning for this county at 14:06 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:30 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 13:01 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 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.

Marco Island (MKY), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Miami radar (KAMX), 137 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:07 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 2022 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.