Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2022
EF2 tornado, Magnolia Beach to (Pfn)Panama City Arpt, Florida, March 18, 2022
From Magnolia Beach to (Pfn)Panama City Arpt, this EF2 tornado ran 1.6 miles across Bay County on March 18, 2022, touching down at 6:16 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500,000 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 mph
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 mphthis tornado
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
- EF2
- Date
- March 18, 2022
- Touchdown
- 6:16 PM CDT (23:16 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:20 PM CDT (23:20 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 1.6 miles (2.6 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $500,000
- County
- Bay County
- Touchdown point
- 30.171, -85.713
- Lift-off point
- 30.185, -85.691
- Record number
- 2203181716-01
The damage survey
53 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 122 mph.
- Float was found in the middle of the street.
- Front porch lofted into the backyard
- All boarded up windows were broken. Front porch was also removed.
- House shifted about 4 ft off its foundation.
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 tri-state region with several reports of wind damage. In addition, a couple of tornadoes occurred in the Florida panhandle, including an EF2 in Panama City. Training convection also produced flash flooding across portions of the Florida panhandle.
A tornado was captured on video moving onshore in the St Andrew's area across W 15th Street. The tornado moved northeastward through numerous residential streets before lifting near Frankford Ave. Numerous structures were damaged along with trees and power lines. The most significant damage occurred from near W 18th Street northeastward to Clay Ave. Some residences had large sections of their roofs removed with most walls remaining standing. In addition, a house on Arthur Ave was moved four feet off its foundation. As a result, this tornado was rated EF2 with maximum estimated winds around 120 mph. A dual-pol tornadic debris signature (TDS) was evident on KEVX radar.
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.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:53 UTC and running to 00:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 UTC | 02:24 UTC | Small Craft Advisory | TAE |
| 15:53 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | TAE |
| 20:12 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Marine Warning | TAE |
| 23:08 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Marine Warning | 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 19:27 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), 48 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:18 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:54 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Hinsons Crossroads | Washington, FL | TREES DOWN AT HINSONS CROSSROADS. |
| 21:11 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Se Sylvania | Washington, FL | TREES DOWN ALONG WHITEHEAD CROSSING ROAD. |
| 21:11 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 S Whitehead Crossroad | Washington, FL | TREES DOWN ALONG BRYANT BAY ROAD. |
| 22:21 UTC | HAIL 1 | 3 Sse Red Head | Washington, FL | QUARTER HAIL ON HIGHWAY 20 BETWEEN HIGHWAY 77 AND 79. |
| 22:59 UTC | TSTM WND GST 64 | 2 S Vicksburg | Bay, FL | WEATHERSTEM SENSOR AT GULF COAST STATE COLLEGE MEASURED THIS GUST. |
| 23:18 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 W Panama City | Bay, FL | ROOFS OF TWO HOMES DAMAGED AT 1812 AND 1815 FOSTER AVENUE. |
| 23:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Wnw Panama City | Bay, FL | ONE HOME HAD A COLLAPSED ROOF AT 1912 CLAY AVENUE. THERE WERE ALSO POWER LINES DOWN IN THE AREA. POSSIBLE TORNADO. |
| 23:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Wnw Panama City | Bay, FL | FD TWEETED DAMAGE REPORT ON FRANKFURT AVENUE BETWEEN 17TH AND 23RD STREET. POSSIBLE TORNADO. |
| 23:20 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Sse Panama City | Bay, FL | MULTIPLE REPORTS OF STRUCTURAL DAMAGE AND TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN ACROSS THE CITY. SEVERAL VIDEOS OF A TORNADO POSTED TO TWITTER. |
| 23:20 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Wnw Panama City | Bay, FL | EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO ROOFS AND RESIDENCES WERE REPORTED IN THE AREA OF WEST 19TH ST BETWEEN HICKORY AVE AND ARTHUR AVE. NUMEROUS POWERLINES ARE DOWN ALONG CALHOUN AVE, WEST 19TH ST, CLAY AVE AND THE AREA OF BECK AVE AND U |
| 23:24 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ese Pfn-Bay County Ai | Bay, FL | A 24-FT FIBERGLASS BOAT (SKIFF) WITH ENGINE WAS BLOWN OFF ITS TRAILER AND TURNED 90° TO THE TRAILER. NUMEROUS TRASH CANS IN THE AREA WERE SCATTERED. SOME SMALL BRANCHES DOWN. POSSIBLE TORNADO. |
| 23:24 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ese Pfn-Bay County Ai | Bay, FL | A 24-FT FIBERGLASS BOAT (SKIFF) WITH ENGINE WAS BLOWN OFF ITS TRAILER AND TURNED 90° TO THE TRAILER. NUMEROUS TRASH CANS IN THE AREA WERE SCATTERED. SOME SMALL BRANCHES DOWN. POSSIBLE TORNADO. |
| 01:15 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 1 E Camp Flowers | Bay, FL | CREEKBANK DRIVE NEAR CAMP FLOWERS ROAD FLOODED. |
| 01:15 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 1 Ese Gulf Lagoon Beach | Bay, FL | NORTH LAGOON DRIVE FLOODED. |
| 01:15 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 1 Nne Gulf Lagoon Beach | Bay, FL | LAURIE DRIVE FLOODED. |
| 01:15 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Brannonville | Bay, FL | FLOODING WAS REPORTED IN HOMES NEAR THE AREA OF 3900 SILVER SPUR RD. |
| 02:14 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Clarksville | Calhoun, FL | NUMEROUS ROADWAYS FLOODED THROUGHOUT THE COUNTY. |
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 18, 2022
8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 18 | 12:28 PM CDT | EF1 | Okaloosa, FL | 1.5 | 50 | $361,000 | ||
| March 18 | 3:38 PM CDT | EF1 | Walton, FL | 0.8 | 25 | |||
| March 18 | 3:39 PM CDT | EF0 | New Madrid, MO | 0.7 | 50 | |||
| March 18 | 8:06 PM EDT | EF1 | Washington, IN | 5.5 | 200 | |||
| March 18 | 9:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Breckinridge, KY | 2.6 | 80 | |||
| March 18 | 10:38 PM EDT | EF1 | Hardin, KY | 4.1 | 100 | |||
| March 18 | 10:52 PM EDT | EF0 | Hardin, KY | 1.8 | 80 | |||
| March 18 | 11:09 PM EDT | EF1 | Bullitt, KY | 0.3 | 100 |
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.