EF1 tornado, Gulf Pines to Turquoise Beach, Florida, June 19, 2023

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

June 19, 2023

Touchdown

11:16 AM CDT (16:16 UTC)

Lifted

11:21 AM CDT (16:21 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

1.6 miles (2.6 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Walton County

Touchdown point

30.387, -86.329

Lift-off point

30.388, -86.302

Record number

2306191016-01

29 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 105 mph.

• Tennis courts fencing blown down and snapped at the bottom
• 3 uprooted hardwood in opposite directions and a snapped off top of a softwood
• Minor shingle loss on a few homes
• Large branch snapped at the top

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

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.

Several videos posted on social media indicated that a tornado touched down on the Choctawhatchee Bay just west of the Sandestin Resort. Initial damage included damage to a storm shutter on the condo directly facing the Bay, and isolated snapped and toppled trees between the Bay and Baytowne Avenue West. This damage was consistent with EF0 damage. EF1 damage was observed east of Baytowne Avenue, where several hardwood trees were uprooted in multiple directions on Turnberry Court. After crossing a golf course and small unpopulated area, the highest concentration of damage occurred along Laurel Way and Ravens Run, where multiple trees were snapped and uprooted with minor roof damage noted to a few homes. The tornado continued east causing minor roof damage to a home on Olde Towne Avenue in addition to uprooting a few hardwood trees. The tornado continued to the east of the resort, snapping and uprooting trees on Mack Bayou Road and east Mack Bayou Drive where several fences sustained damage in addition to minor damage to the roof of a small business. The tornado then lifted east of Mack Bayou Drive. Damage was consistent with an EF1 max wind speed of 105 mph.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 12:54 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 Eglin Afb radar (KEVX), 43 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:15 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 2023 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

3 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.