EF0 Tornado — Franklin, Florida

2023-06-15 · near Apalachicola, Franklin, Florida

Event narrative

A waterspout made brief landfall on the west end of Saint George Island as a tornado before moving out over the open Gulf of Mexico. Minor damage was reported to a home along Seahorse Lane consistent with an EF-0 rating. The timing and track of the tornado was refined using radar data and photos of the waterspout over Apalachicola Bay and the Gulf of Mexico from social media.

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 → (29.6226, -84.9496)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1163686. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.