EF1 tornado, Wallace to Galt City, Florida, March 30, 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 30, 2022

Touchdown

12:32 AM CDT (05:32 UTC)

Lifted

12:34 AM CDT (05:34 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.4 miles (0.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Santa Rosa County

Touchdown point

30.642, -87.185

Lift-off point

30.645, -87.181

Record number

2203302332-01

25 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 104 mph.

• Convergent tree damage, minor roof/siding damage
• Tree tops snapped, fencing down, minor roof/siding damage. No signs of convergence.
• Rear Flank Downdraft wind damage.
• One or two trees snapped high, minor loss of metal roofing. Rear Flank Downdraft wind damage.

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

A very active severe weather season continued as an outbreak of severe thunderstorms occurred across the area from the evening of the 30th into the early morning hours on the 31st. A strong spring storm system moved across the area. Ahead of the system plenty of Gulf moisture returned to the central Gulf coast. This led to a very unstable atmosphere over the region which combined to strong wind shear to produce 18 tornadoes which were rated from EF-0 to EF-2. In addition to the tornadoes, the storms produced damaging straight line winds and large hail. Numerous reports of damage came in from southeast Mississippi, southwest Alabama and the western Florida panhandle.

A short duration EF1 tornado with winds upwards of 94mph impacted|the Pace area on 3/31/22. This tornado began on Dove Drive|impacting multiple residential structures resulting in notable|loss of roofing material along with many snapped/uprooted softwood|and hardwood trees. The tornado exited the community quickly|tracking just to the northwest of the Circle K on Quintette Road|where multiple trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado lifted|at or near the Berryhill and Chumuckla Highway intersection where|the damage path ended.

An EF1 tornado began on 3/31/22 along the Escambia Bay Bridge of|I-10 overturning an eastbound semi-truck resulting in two|injuries. The tornado continued northeast moving onshore off of|Escambia Bay resulting in very sporadic minor tree damage around|North 6th Avenue. The tornado turned east northeast and picked up|in intensity as it uprooted and snapped numerous hardwood/softwood|trees and caused minor to moderate roofing damage to residential|homes. The tornado tracked northeast reaching its peak intensity|of 104mph along De La Rue Drive where a small tree stand had most|of its trees snapped with multiple uprooted and snapped trees in|its vicinity. The tornado continued northeast from here crossing|another small residential community located along Highland Lake Rd|into Edinburgh Castle Drive uprooting and snapping multiple trees|and removing some roofing material from residential homes. The|tornado cross Edinburgh Castle Drive where it impacted a|residential home which had a personal weather station located on|the back side of the house. The weather station measured a peak|wind gust of 97mph associated with the tornado. The home suffered|notable roof damage along with many of its windows blown out.|Several snapped and uprooted trees were also on the property. The|tornado continued east northeast crossing Florida 281, directly|impacting Avalon Utilities building removing some siding and|roofing material. The tornado likely continued to track northeast|of here, weakening as it did so across open fields and tree|stands. Due to limited road access, the end point of the tornado|is estimated based on the weakening of the couplet on radar and|the lack of any convergent wind damage on accessible roads to the|northeast.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:24 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:39 UTC and running to 07:27 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:57 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 Mobile radar (KMOB), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:30 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

80 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 81 of them

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.