EF1 tornado, (Eyw)Key West Inl Ar to Stock Is, Florida, October 8, 2024

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

October 8, 2024

Touchdown

11:37 PM EDT (03:37 UTC)

Lifted

11:39 PM EDT (03:39 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Monroe County

Touchdown point

24.544, -81.804

Lift-off point

24.548, -81.805

Record number

2410082137-01

7 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS KEY, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

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

Hurricane Milton moved northeast across the eastern Gulf of Mexico, gradually weakening from category 5 to category 4 strength while passing, at the closest approach, about 180 statue miles to the northwest of Key West on the afternoon of October 9, 2024. Widespread lower-end tropical storm force winds overspread the Lower Florida Keys and its adjacent coastal waters producing isolated large tree limb and utility line damage. Coastal flooding in lowest elevation parts of the Florida Keys occurred initially with storm surge around 1.5 feet MHHW along the oceanside of the Florida Keys accompanied by heavy wave action on October 9th, with a secondary Gulfside and Florida Bayside storm surge of higher magnitude during the early through mid morning hours October 10th. The highest storm surge values near 3.0 feet above MHHW occurred in Key Largo along Blackwater Sound. One tornado was observed as a waterspout moved ashore the far southwest portion of Key West.

A waterspout with a concentrated single vortex was |observed on the oceanside moving north shortly prior to landfall in |the Truman Annex section of Key West. The subsequent tornado moved |north through a small complex of residential apartmentments. |Numerous large hardwood tree limbs and a snapped set of umbrella |tree trunks were noted, along with removed flashing and shingles |from the corners of one of of the residential structurs. A light |pole of lightweight composite spun material snapped just above its |base along the western side of the the tornado circulation. It was |this location that the maximum estimated peak wind of 95 mph was |assessed. While not specifically rated, partially-filled trash |(approximately 96 gallons) and recycling recepticles were lofted |north and northeastward, with one impact breaking the window frame |and shattering windows on one of the apartment facilities. The |tornado bended very slightly west of due north, passing near a |chapel facility snapping numerous healthy, solid-wood large limbs |from a medium-sized gumbo limbo tree, as well as snappling the |trunks of a medium-large hardwood tree of ill health and a loaded, |unharvested medium-sized coconut palm. The differing directions of |the damage path suggested the tornado likely continued as a narrow |with estimated wind speeds of 80 to 90 mph. The tornado damage path |ended in an undeveloped portion of the Truman Annex with no sign of |continuation into the Key West-Truman Annex Inner Mole waterfront.

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:43 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 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.

Key West (EYW), 5 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Key West radar (KBYX), 12 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:36 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

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.