Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2022

EF1 tornado, Eucheeanna to Douglas Crossroads, Florida, March 18, 2022

From Eucheeanna to Douglas Crossroads, this EF1 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Walton County on March 18, 2022, touching down at 3:38 PM CDT and reaching 25 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 18, 2022
Touchdown
3:38 PM CDT (20:38 UTC)
Lifted
3:40 PM CDT (20:40 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.8 miles (1.3 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Walton County
Touchdown point
30.665, -86.018
Lift-off point
30.662, -86.005
Record number
2203181438-01

The damage survey

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

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 touched down briefly in a rural area along G Montgomery Road in Walton county and tracked eastward through a wooded area and across County Highway 183 S. There were numerous snapped trees along its path, but no structures were impacted. This tornado was rated EF1 with maximum estimated winds around 90 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

5 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:33 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:53 UTC and running to 23:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
08:42 UTC14:00 UTCDense Fog AdvisoryTAE
15:53 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WatchTAE
18:51 UTC19:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTAE
19:41 UTC21:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryTAE
20:06 UTC21:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTAE
20:33 UTC21:00 UTCTornado WarningTAE
20:51 UTC21:17 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTAE
21:33 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTAE

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), 14 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:36 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
20:35 UTCMARINE TSTM WIND 392 E DestinOkaloosa, FLASOS STATION KDTS DESTIN.
20:38 UTCTORNADO1 Nw Shady GroveWalton, FLA 50-YARD SWATCH OF TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN IN THIS AREA. A TDS WAS DETECTED ON KEVX RADAR.
20:40 UTCTORNADO1 Wnw Shady GroveWalton, FLMULTIPLE MATURE PINE TREES SNAPPED OFF MID-TRUNK NEAR 945 GEORGE MONTGOMERY ROAD.
20:54 UTCTSTM WND DMGHinsons CrossroadsWashington, FLTREES DOWN AT HINSONS CROSSROADS.
21:11 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Se SylvaniaWashington, FLTREES DOWN ALONG WHITEHEAD CROSSING ROAD.
21:11 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 S Whitehead CrossroadWashington, FLTREES DOWN ALONG BRYANT BAY ROAD.
21:20 UTCHAIL 0.88CaryvilleWashington, FLNICKEL HAIL REPORTED ON I-10 IN CARYVILLE FORWARDED BY WJHG-TV.
21:35 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Wsw Cottondale AirporJackson, FLTREES DOWN ON MELVIN ROAD.
22:21 UTCHAIL 13 Sse Red HeadWashington, FLQUARTER HAIL ON HIGHWAY 20 BETWEEN HIGHWAY 77 AND 79.
22:59 UTCTSTM WND GST 642 S VicksburgBay, FLWEATHERSTEM SENSOR AT GULF COAST STATE COLLEGE MEASURED THIS GUST.
23:02 UTCFLASH FLOODChipleyWashington, FLTWITTER POST OF FLOODED ROADS IN CHIPLEY.

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.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 1812:28 PM CDTEF1Okaloosa, FL1.550$361,000
March 183:39 PM CDTEF0New Madrid, MO0.750
March 186:16 PM CDTEF2Bay, FL1.675$500,000
March 188:06 PM EDTEF1Washington, IN5.5200
March 189:20 PM CDTEF0Breckinridge, KY2.680
March 1810:38 PM EDTEF1Hardin, KY4.1100
March 1810:52 PM EDTEF0Hardin, KY1.880
March 1811:09 PM EDTEF1Bullitt, KY0.3100

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.