Thunderstorm Wind in Madison County, Florida

A tree was blown down along Highway 53 near Cherry Lake.

May was an incredibly busy month defined by heat, heavy rain, and severe thunderstorms. The main weather event occurred on the 10th when tornadoes and swaths of intense straight-line winds ravaged the Tallahassee area. A severe squall line plowed through parts of SE AL, the FL Panhandle and Big Bend early that morning and produced a total of 7 confirmed tornadoes. Three tornadoes went through Leon County, of which two, each rated EF-2 (max winds of 115 mph), simultaneously converged on Tallahassee. That same storm also was responsible for destructive wind damage in excess of 100 mph with the FAMU Weatherstem site reporting a peak gust of 84 mph, while the Tallahassee Airport gusted to 66 mph. The former surpassed the 83-mph record gust at KTLH from 9/11/1990! The resultant impacts were widespread power outages, downed/snapped/uprooted trees, and 400+ broken utility poles (exceeding Hurricane Hermine/Irma/Michael combined, per the City of TLH). Unfortunately, there were two storm-related fatalities in Tallahassee. Damage costs to the city of Tallahassee were extensive. The city accrued at least $50 million in damages, not even including residential damages. Residential damage was significant. There were a total of 174 structures deemed destroyed, 742 with major damage, 780 with minor damage, and 417 that were deemed affected. The median home price in Tallahassee as of July 2024 is roughly $286,000. Thus, a rough estimate for residential damage is an additional $50 million for the destroyed structures (assuming $286K damage per structure), $74.2 million for the structures with major damage (assuming $100K damage per structure), $7.8 million for the structures with minor damage (assuming $10K damage per structure), and $2.1 million for the structures that were deemed affected (assuming $5,000 damage per structure). This brings the estimated grand total to $184.1 million, which will be divided equally between the two tornadoes since they merged together over the city.