Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2023

EF0 tornado, Cabbage Grove to Econfina, Florida, June 15, 2023

From Cabbage Grove to Econfina, this EF0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Taylor County on June 15, 2023, touching down at 1:43 AM EDT 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 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    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
EF0
Date
June 15, 2023
Touchdown
1:43 AM EDT (05:43 UTC)
Lifted
1:45 AM EDT (05:45 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Taylor County
Touchdown point
30.175, -83.897
Lift-off point
30.182, -83.883
Record number
2306152343-01

The damage survey

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

  • Multiple tree limbs broken

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

The middle part of June was unusually stormy across the area. Numerous rounds of strong to severe storms impacted the region with multiple squall lines that produced severe winds as well as supercells that produced large hail and tornadoes. Heavy rain also occurred over a multi-day period, which saturated the ground and led to some instances of flash flooding. ||The synoptic pattern featured well above average 250 mb zonal wind anomalies, which were traceable back to an active subtropical jet stream. Greater than average instability was also present, in part due to anomalously warm Gulf of Mexico SSTs. This combination of above average shear from the active subtropical jet and above average instability from the warmer than average SSTs provided a synoptic environment favorable for severe weather as upper level shortwaves moving through the area. This pattern persisted for many days, leading to an unusually large amount of severe weather.

A brief EF0 touched down in rural western county with damage limited to trees. A tornadic debris signature was visible on TLH radar.

A well defined tornadic debris signature tracked through the forest of rural western Taylor county. Damage was limited to trees.

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

The warnings

1 minute of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:42 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:55 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:52 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchTAE
20:00 UTC00:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningTAE
20:44 UTC22:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTAE
22:57 UTC02:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryTAE
05:42 UTC05:55 UTCTornado WarningTAE
06:15 UTC06:45 UTCTornado WarningTAE
06:42 UTC07:14 UTCTornado WarningTAE
07:04 UTC07:30 UTCTornado WarningTAE
07:07 UTC07:45 UTCTornado WarningTAE
07:27 UTC08:00 UTCTornado WarningTAE
07:40 UTC08:15 UTCTornado WarningTAE
07:50 UTC11:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningTAE
08:01 UTC08:30 UTCTornado WarningTAE
08:08 UTC08:45 UTCTornado WarningTAE
08:33 UTC09:07 UTCTornado WarningTAE
11:47 UTC14:45 UTCFlood WarningTAE
13:58 UTC19:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchTAE
16:25 UTC17:03 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTAE
16:54 UTC17:45 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:05 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.

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 12:00Z

6.3 hours after it, 46 km from the path. June 16, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2023-06-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 405 joules per kilogram, CIN -156, lifted condensation level 1044 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2023-06-16The 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 124 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
405 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-156 J/kg
Surface CAPE
434 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1044 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
124 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
129 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.6
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 49 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:43 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
05:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 43Alligator PointFranklin, FLWeatherflow station measured 43 mph wind gust.
07:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Nw Perry-Foley AirporTaylor, FLRoof damage to home and damage to outbuilding. Reported by media and emergency management.
07:45 UTCTORNADO1 Nw Perry-Foley AirporTaylor, FLEF1 tornado confirmed by storm survey.
08:25 UTCTSTM WND GST 41Perry-Foley AirportTaylor, FLWeatherflow station measured 41 mph wind gust.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2023 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 15, 2023

31 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 154:58 PM CDTEF0Comanche, OK3.850$10,000
June 155:02 PM CDTEF2Ochiltree, TX17.4200$114,000
June 156:06 PM EDTEF2Lucas, OH3.8300$176,000
June 155:06 PM CDTEF3Perryton tornado, TX6.38803100$1.0 million
June 156:09 PM EDTEF1Monroe, MI4.8400
June 155:10 PM CDTEF0Cotton, OK1.250$10,000
June 155:11 PM CDTUnratedStephens, OK0.550
June 155:12 PM CDTEF0Ochiltree, TX12.350
June 156:28 PM EDTEF0Lucas, OH0.250$5,000
June 155:34 PM CDTEF0Stephens, OK0.8200
June 155:37 PM CDTEF1Stephens, OK0.520$30,000
June 156:49 PM EDTEF2Ottawa, OH3.4200$255,000
June 156:57 PM EDTEF1Sandusky, OH0.1100$15,000
June 155:58 PM CDTUnratedJefferson, OK0.850
June 156:03 PM CDTEF1Stephens, OK1.550$10,000
June 156:16 PM CDTEF2Jefferson, OK4.11,000$250,000
June 157:19 PM EDTEF0Sandusky, OH0.350$18,000
June 156:29 PM CDTEF1Ellis, TX to OK4.8200$11,000
June 157:40 PM EDTEF0Sandusky, OH0.950$10,000
June 157:43 PM EDTEF0Franklin, FL0.450$5,000
June 156:47 PM CDTUnratedRoger Mills, OK1.050
June 157:48 PM EDTEF2Huron, OH8.72,200$270,000
June 157:51 PM EDTEF0Huron, OH1.6100$5,000
June 158:01 PM EDTEF0Huron, OH0.7100$5,000
June 158:04 PM EDTEF1Huron, OH8.61,100$165,000
June 158:13 PM EDTEF1Huron, OH4.0250$60,000
June 157:26 PM CDTEF0Love, OK0.510
June 158:46 PM EDTEF0Ashland, OH1.2300$70,000
June 158:02 PM CDTEF1Clay, TX2.5100$8,000
June 158:35 PM CDTEF2Escambia, FL8.6450
June 1512:21 AM CDTEF0Baldwin, AL0.375

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.