Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2022

EF1 tornado, Lorida, Florida, March 12, 2022

This EF1 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Highlands County on March 12, 2022, touching down at 11:45 AM EST 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 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
March 12, 2022
Touchdown
11:45 AM EST (16:45 UTC)
Lifted
11:47 AM EST (16:47 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.7 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Highlands County
Touchdown point
27.460, -81.260
Lift-off point
27.464, -81.251
Record number
2203121045-01

The damage survey

1 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 98 mph.

  • Multiple wooden poles broken along US Hwy 98/FL Hwy 700 near Lorida. Poles located in largely unobstructed location with large agricultural field to the south and southwest.

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

Severel power poles snapped just northwest of Arbuckel Creek RD and Highway 98 due to a brief tornado.

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

The warnings

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

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:17 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.

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 12:00Z

4.8 hours before the tornado, 116 km from the path. March 12, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2022-03-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 241 joules per kilogram, CIN -46, lifted condensation level 934 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, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2022-03-12The 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 475 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
241 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-46 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2232 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
934 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
475 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
491 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
19.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 00:00Z

7.2 hours after it, 116 km from the path. March 13, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2022-03-13Temperature 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 -83404, lifted condensation level 1490 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, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2022-03-13The 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 -215 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 76 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-83404 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1490 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
76 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-215 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-259 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Sebring (SEF), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
14:55 UTC8171.6210° 18 kt281012.5
15:15 UTC80.871220° 20 kt261012.2
15:35 UTC81.571230° 23 kt281012.2
15:55 UTC8170.3230° 17 kt301012.2
16:15 UTC81.770.3230° 20 kt331011.5
16:35 UTC78.472.3220° 26 kt351011.2-RA
16:55 UTC69.869.3270° 14 kt261013.2RA BR
17:15 UTC69.368.4290° 23 kt301013.5-RA BR
17:35 UTC69.468290° 17 kt231013.5-RA
17:55 UTC69.466.6300° 17 kt231013.5-RA
18:15 UTC68.764.4290° 22 kt291013.9
18:35 UTC67.863.3310° 22 kt261014.2

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

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 93 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:44 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
15:45 UTCTORNADO1 Nw LoridaHighlands, FL* DELAYED REPORT * SEVERAL POWER POLES SNAPPED JUST NORTHWEST OF ARBUCKLE CREEK RD AND HIGHWAY 98. 1645Z.
16:32 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Sse SebringHighlands, FLEM REPORTED MULTIPLE HOMES WITH ROOF, CARPORT, AND/OR WINDOW DAMAGE AT LEISURE ACRES MOBILE HOME PARK.

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 March 12, 2022

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 127:45 AM ESTEF1Marion, FL26.665
March 128:06 AM ESTEF1Hernando, FL5.8100$50,000
March 129:03 AM ESTEF1Putnam, FL5.370
March 1212:09 PM ESTEF0Lee, FL0.050$1,000

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.