EF1 Tornado — Santa Rosa, Florida

2024-04-10 · near Floridatown, Santa Rosa, Florida

Event narrative

The tornado began just southwest of Sterling way near Escambia Bay. The tornado quickly intensified as it approached Peach Dr. where numerous homes suffered shingle damage. A very large oak tree was snapped with several other large hardwood branches snapped. Numerous homes lost fences and as a result the tornado was rated at its peak intensity here. The tornado continued northeast across peach Dr towards Red Cedar Rd. Numerous homes suffered shingle damage, large branches removed from trees and fencing damage. A small metal shed was lifted and deposited on Red Cedar Lane and another house had multiple 2x4s shot into the side of the house. A very small but noticeable convergent path was located here. The tornado then rapidly weakened as it approached bell lane where some smaller branches were snapped. Update 4/16/2024 After review of available Planet satellite imagery, it was determined the tornado began prior to the L N railroad crossing, moving onshore off Escambia Bay. Special thanks to NASA SPoRT for providing the imagery to support this extension in the tornado path. This portion of the track was solely in the forest and will be re-assessed later for assigning DI's if higher resolution satellite imagery becomes available.

Wider weather episode

A severe line of thunderstorms moved across the Gulf Coast during the day. This line of storms produced large and damaging winds along with a couple of tornadoes.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (30.5700, -87.1500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1177856. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.