EF1 Tornado — Taylor, Florida

2023-06-16 · near (40j)perry-foley Arpt, Taylor, Florida

Event narrative

A tornado touched down south of Perry, FL on the north side of Houck Rd. Here the tornado produced EF-0 damage to a large metal building system, pulling some of the metal roof panels off the building and sending insulation over to Perry Foley Airport. Traveling southeast across Houck Rd, EF-1 damage was observed as the tornado then flipped up the metal roof of a porch, peeled back the metal roof of an outbuilding, snapped a tree and uprooted a very large tree. Further southeast at the airport a sign was damaged, debris from the metal building was found, and one aircraft broke free of its tail rope and was pushed sideways. The tornado then lifted shortly past the airport. Damage cost was estimated.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (30.0829, -83.5940)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1112719. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.