EF1 tornado, Bahoma, Florida, March 9, 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 9, 2022

Touchdown

5:12 AM CST (11:12 UTC)

Lifted

5:13 AM CST (11:13 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.2 miles (0.3 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Washington County

Touchdown point

30.817, -85.501

Lift-off point

30.818, -85.498

Record number

2203090512-01

27 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.

• Photos courtesy Washington County EM.
• Multiple farm buildings suffered roof damage.
• Damage to farm outbuildings. Photos courtesy Washington County EM.
• Photo courtesy Washington County EM.

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

A cold front crossed the area during the early morning hours of March 9th. Sufficient instability and wind shear resulted in a few tornadoes and wind damage across the Florida panhandle.

A tornado touched down north of Chipley, FL on Cope Road just south of the intersection with Williams Road. The tornado then traveled east along Williams Road for just under 1.5 miles before lifting before reaching SR 77. Damage along the path was limited mainly to out buildings and mobile homes, several of which had substantial roof damage. A few large branches of hardwood trees were snapped. Isolated softwood tree trunks were snapped, but surrounding trees not affected. The damage was consistent with an EF0 tornado with maximum winds of 80 mph.

The same parent supercell that produced the Williams Road tornado dropped another tornado about two miles downstream. This tornado had a very short track, but was stronger than the one upstream. Several large barns and outbuildings sustained considerable roof damage with smaller buildings tossed many yards from their original location. A couple of large oak trees were also uprooted. The damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado with maximum winds around 90 mph.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:53 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:18 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:25 UTC and running to 13:58 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 05:55 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.

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

7 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.