EF1 tornado, Hernando Beach to Weeki Wachee, Florida, March 12, 2022

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 12, 2022

Touchdown

8:06 AM EST (13:06 UTC)

Lifted

8:12 AM EST (13:12 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

5.8 miles (9.3 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Hernando County

Touchdown point

28.495, -82.667

Lift-off point

28.519, -82.576

Record number

2203120706-01

14 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TBW, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

• Staff at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park observed what they believed to have been a tornado shortly after 8AM. Staff reported being able to see a visible, swirling funnel. Damage described (and what was still uncleared showed) is consistent with this, as large branches were broken along with a metal shed. A car’s position in the parking lot was also shifted.
• Resident observed tornado moving across canal. A boat was knocked off the lift and the lift was damaged. No pictures available. Area was mostly cleaned up, with only a few small limbs still on the ground. No significant damage to homes.
• Large, healthy pine tree snapped in half.
• Large, reasonably healthy pine uprooted. Other small branches down in the vicinity.

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

A deepening low pressure system dragged a strong cold front through West Central Florida. As it did it produced strong winds and tornadoes.

A line of strong to severe thunderstorms produced a|tornado as the line moved onshore near Weeki Wachee. Observers|reported a waterspout moving onshore shortly after 8AM, with some|minor damage observed and reported in the vicinity. The tornado|then trekked inland through a protected forest, knocking down|trees along a river. Eventually, the tornado emerged in a|neighborhood and continued to knock down trees before dissipating|just before US19 and SR50.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 08:37 UTC and running to 14:25 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 12:49 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.

Brooksville (Asos) (BKV), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 92 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:04 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.

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

4 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.