Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2022
EF0 tornado, De Funiak Springs Arpt, Florida, January 2, 2022
This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Walton County on January 2, 2022, touching down at 1:02 PM CST and reaching 85 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- January 2, 2022
- Touchdown
- 1:02 PM CST (19:02 UTC)
- Lifted
- 1:03 PM CST (19:03 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 85 yards (78 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $50,000
- County
- Walton County
- Touchdown point
- 30.739, -86.160
- Lift-off point
- 30.740, -86.159
- Record number
- 2201021302-01
The damage survey
7 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 81 mph.
- Structure slid and rolled. Completely unsecured.
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
Numerous showers and thunderstorms ahead of a cold front brought severe weather to the tri-state area. Several reports of trees and power lines blown down were received from across the region along with one tornado in Walton county, FL.
A tornado briefly touched down just north of the De Funiak Springs Municipal Airport near the intersection of Dr Roberts Drive and Bellini Road. The tornado uprooted a few trees and caused damage to several outbuildings and two mobile homes. The maximum wind is estimated at 80 mph, making this an EF-0 tornado.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
6 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:56 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:16 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18:56 UTC | 19:16 UTC | Tornado Warning | TAE |
| 19:18 UTC | 23:04 UTC | Tornado Watch | TAE |
| 19:35 UTC | 20:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TAE |
| 03:02 UTC | 15:00 UTC | Wind Advisory | TAE |
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 16:31 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 radar
The Eglin Afb radar (KEVX), 30 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:04 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:31 UTC | TSTM WND GST 53 | Crestview Airport | Okaloosa, FL | ASOS STATION KCEW CRESTVIEW MEASURES 53MPH THUNDERSTORM WIND GUST. |
| 19:03 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nw De Funiak Spring A | Walton, FL | DOWNED TREES AND AN OVERTURNED CAMPER. |
| 19:12 UTC | MARINE TSTM WIND 42 | Miramar Beach | Walton, FL | |
| 19:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Sw Hickory Hill | Holmes, FL | POWERLINE DOWN ON NORTH HIGHWAY 81. |
| 20:40 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 56 | 2 Ssw Eglin Afb | Okaloosa, FL | CORRECTS PREVIOUS NON-TSTM WND GST REPORT FROM 2 SSW EGLIN AFB. TEMPEST WEATHER STATION MEASURES 49KT WIND GUST AT LORRAINE NORTH SHORE AT 2:40 PM CST. |
| 21:12 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 56 | 2 Ssw Eglin Afb | Okaloosa, FL | TEMPEST WEATHER STATION MEASURES 49KT WIND GUST AT LORRAINE NORTH SHORE AT 2:40 PM CST. |
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
The other tornadoes of January 2, 2022
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.