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EF1 tornado in St. Johns County, Florida

Tornado April 11, 2024 · St. Johns County, Florida

EF1
Rating
6.7 mi
Path length
310 yd
Path width
1
Injury
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 310 yards (0.18 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

Just before noon a supercell thunderstorm, embedded within

a larger squall line, generated a tornado that touched down in the

Trailmark and Samara Lakes neighborhoods. Radar data and damage

indicate that the tornado made an initial touchdown in a heavily

wooded area along County Road 13 North. The tornado rapidly moved

northeastward, reaching County Road 208 where a tree had been

snapped and fell onto an adjacent mobile home. Within the

Trailmark neighborhood, damage considered for the EF-1 rating

included destroyed fences, vinyl siding torn from residences,

roofing tiles and soffits damaged or torn from structures,

several broken windows, and destroyed screened-in patio areas. The

tornado reached peak intensity in the Trailmark neighborhood with

maximum estimated speed of 100 mph. The 6.7 mile long track ended

northeast of the the Samara Lakes neighborhood where similar

damage occurred. NWS survey results revealed the tornado reached

its widest point of 310 yards in the Samara Lakes neighborhood.

There was one minor injury associated with this tornado event.

The wider storm

Several waves of strong to severe storms moved across the area. One wave brought locally heavy rainfall across the Suwannee River Valley, then as the low level jet approach through midday, shear increased as did diurnal instability which then produced strong to severe storms and an isolated tornado in the World Golf Village.

Began near Meldrim Park (29.8853, -81.5626).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1170534. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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