EF2 Tornado — Jackson, Florida

2024-01-09 · near Simsville, Jackson, Florida

Event narrative

The tornado began in an open field that paralleled highway 73 in central Jackson county. The tornado continued to the northeast before crossing Pandora road where it uprooted a couple large pine trees, one of which fell on an older single wide trailer, which was completely destroyed. Another slightly newer single wide trailer had half of its roof peeled back and blown into the woods behind it to the northeast. The tornado continued to the northeast where it crossed Magnolia road. Several trees were uprooted and snapped along the road. A brand new manufactured home had half of its roof blown off. A trailer park along Mark lane had several large trees snapped or uprooted, and a few roofs were peeled back on some of the single wide homes in the subdivision. The tornado then went on to cross I-10 where an 18 wheeler was knocked over. After crossing I-10, the tornado paralleled Spring Creek road where it snapped and uprooted several large hardwood trees as well as peeled back part of the roof of a shed. The tornado continued to the northeast where it crossed U.S. Highway 90 where a majority of the damage and seven injuries occurred in an RV Park and neighborhood. Several mobile homes where significantly damaged or flipped upside down while being displaced several hundred feet. Several large pine trees where snapped at the base as well. In the subdivision just to the northeast of the RV Park on Rooks Drive, two residential family homes had their roofs completely blown off. A church just across the street from the homes off Merritts Mill road had a cinder block outbuilding collapse. The church building sustained some damage to the gable. The tornado continued to the northeast where several homes off of Janette Drive had partial roof damage as well as sporadic tree damage. The tornado continued to the northeast again through a wooded area before moving through Blue Spring subdivision where extensive damage was observed to the roofs and siding of a majority of the homes. Two homes off of Spring Chase Lane had their roofs blown off along with several large mature hardwoods being snapped at their base. The tornado reached its maximum intensity and width through this stretch just beyond U.S. Highway 90. The maximum width is estimated to be around 600 yards. From the Blue Springs Road subdivision, the tornado continued to the northeast parallel to Blue Springs Road where it snapped and uprooted several trees. The tornado continued along Blue Springs road where it damaged the roofs of several single wide manufactured homes. The tornado continued to the northeast where it collapsed the roof of another church outbuilding along Polar Springs road while also uprooting and snapping several trees on the church property. The tornado crossed Fort road to the northeast of the church where several trees were snapped and uprooted before continuing through a wooded area. The tornado crossed Wintergreen road where a few trees were uprooted along the road, before it dissipated over the field to the northeast of the road. The tornado was rated EF2 with max winds estimated at 125 mph.

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 → (30.7100, -85.2276)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1150330. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.