EF2 Tornado — Bay, Florida

2024-01-09 · near Lynn Haven, Bay, Florida

Event narrative

The same supercell that spawned the Grand Lagoon tornado dropped another in Lynn Haven where some trees were snapped and one home had some minor roof damage. The tornado then traveled northeast across the eastern portion of North Bay before causing damage in the Resota Beach area on the west shore of Deer Point Lake, destroying one double-wide manufactured home and significantly damaging another. The most significant damage in this area was to a single family home on Joanna Lane where large sections of the roof were removed and the garage was destroyed. This was consistent with EF-2 damage. After crossing Deer Point Lake, the tornado tracked through the Bay Head neighborhood where it caused the most extensive damage. One manufactured home on Magnolia Avenue was ripped from its moorings and tossed against the tree line at the back of the property. Fortunately, the two people inside suffered only minor injuries. A single family home at the intersection of Magnolia and Seminole St. had a large portion of its roof removed. Similar damage occurred to a home on Palm Avenue where substantial tree damage also occurred. Four homes in the vicinity of Cherokee St. and Deerwood Avenue sustained similar damage. A brick home on Sunshine Drive not only had about half of its roof removed, but also saw collapse of walls on one corner of the house. All of these homes mentioned thus far in Bay Head suffered EF-2 damage, but this last one was the most severely damaged with winds estimated at 130 mph. As the tornado continued northeast, additional roof damage to homes occurred on Indian Bluff Drive, Indian Bluff Road, Piza Circle, and Miller Circle. On CR 2301 near Vickery Lane, one mobile home was shifted off its support blocks with a third of the structure destroyed. Damage northeast of this point became more sporadic and mainly to trees. The tornado appeared to lift as it crossed Mocassin Creek.

Wider weather episode

A high impact severe weather event impacted the tri-state region on January 9th with supercells producing tornadoes, large hail, and damaging wind gusts, followed by a major squall line with widespread wind damage and additional tornadoes. Preceding this activity, very strong non-thunderstorm wind gusts of 40-60 mph occurred, with even a gust to 70 mph at the Albany airport. There were 14 tornadoes confirmed across the tri-state region, including 3 EF0s, 5 EF1s, 5 EF2s, and 1 EF3. This activity was driven by a deepening area of low pressure west of the region with a record strong low level jet crossing the region. The winds at 850 mb were in in the 65-80 knot range, and sufficient instability existed to support mixing some of these very strong environmental winds to the surface.

Two significant tornadoes touched down in Bay county, including 1 EF3 and 1 EF2. These two tornadoes in Bay county resulted in damage to 326 buildings for a total market value loss of $20,350,311. There were 234 single family homes damaged, 46 mobile homes damaged, 22 condos damaged, 2 multi-family homes damaged, and 22 commercial buildings damaged. Of these 326 buildings, 113 sustained 5% damage, 86 sustained 15% damage, 2 sustained 20% damage, 29 sustained 30% damage, 17 sustained 35% damage, 28 sustained 45% damage, and 51 sustained 100% damage.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (30.2403, -85.6419)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1150257. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.