EF1 tornado, Wauchula Muni Arpt, Florida, October 9, 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 9, 2024

Touchdown

2:49 PM EDT (18:49 UTC)

Lifted

2:52 PM EDT (18:52 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Hardee County

Touchdown point

27.628, -81.617

Lift-off point

27.642, -81.621

Record number

2410091249-01

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

• Tree limbs snapped around building and large area of metal roof damaged.
• Back side of motel roof deposited and then several oak trees branches snapped.
• Two single wide trailers with awning damage. Large metal roofing of unknown origin between them.
• Several large oak branches snapped.

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

Hurricane Milton made landfall along the west-central Florida coast near Siesta Key at 7:30 PM EST on October 9th as a major, Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph and a minimum pressure of 954 mb. 2 days prior to landfall on October 7th, Milton reached its peak intensity as a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph and a minimum pressure of 897 mb, making it the 5th most intense Atlantic hurricane of record in terms of pressure, and the strongest Atlantic hurricane since the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Milton would weaken due to an eyewall replacement cycle the following day before reattaining Category 5 status, before a weakening trend ensued early on the 9th and persisted through landfall due to increasing vertical wind shear and dry air. Milton produced wide ranging impacts across the western Florida panhandle from all commonly associated tropical cyclone hazards.|Milton produced a widespread swath of wind gusts of 80 to 100 mph across Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota counties, affecting the heavily populated Tampa-St. Petersburg metro area along with other large population centers including Bradenton and Sarasota. Wind gusts over 60 mph extended well into southwest Florida and up into the Nature Coast as well. Widespread significant structural and tree damage resulted from the strong winds, leading to numerous power outages that saw a peak of over 3.5 million customers without power. |Official storm surge measured by tidal gauges ranged from around 5 to 7 feet above normally dry ground in Sarasota, Charlotte and Lee counties, south of where the center moved ashore; however, peak water levels were estimated to have reached up to 10 feet above normally dry ground per NWS storm surveys following the storm, with numerous homes and structures damaged or destroyed by the storm surge across coastal Sarasota, Charlotte and Lee counties. Offshore winds north of Milton's center produced blowout tide conditions resulting in lower than normal water levels, which occurred from around Tampa Bay extending northward across coastal Nature Coast locations.|Milton produced a widespread swath of heavy rainfall just north of its track across the peninsula, with maximum storm totals of generally 12 to 18 inches and some local totals in excess of 20 inches, spanning from the Tampa Bay area north and east into parts of Pasco, Polk and Sumter counties. These heavy rains resulted in widespread flash flooding and eventually led to moderate to major river flooding, with some river gauge sites establishing new record crests as a result.|Prior to landfall, at least a dozen tornadoes impacted west central and southwest Florida as outer rainbands moved across the area, establishing a new record number of tornadoes to affect the area in a 24-hour period. The strongest of these tornadoes were two EF-2 tornadoes, one that tracked through the Fort Myers area, and another that tracked across the Lake Placid area. While the tornadoes were responsible for structural and agricultural damage, only an injury was reported.|Milton's overall impacts across the western Florida peninsula resulted in 7 direct fatalities, 4 indirect fatalities, and over $3 billion in insured losses. Over 200 homes were destroyed, with over 2,000 suffering major damage, and 5,000 suffering minor damage. Over 400 businesses were impacted by Milton.

A brief tornado touched down just east of Old Town Creek Road and|paralleled the road for a couple minutes, snapping trees as it|went across the region, before dissipating. Maximum estimated winds were 105 mph.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS TBW issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:22 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 12:23 UTC and running to 21:41 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 16:23 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.

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:46 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 2024 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

43 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.