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EF1 tornado in Martin County, Florida

Tornado October 9, 2024 · Martin County, Florida

EF1
Rating
3.0 mi
Path length
250 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$2.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 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

A tornado, embedded within one of Hurricane Milton's outer rainbands, touched down just south of US-1 where a camper home was tossed and its occupant was injured. The circulation moved across SE Federal Highway where it impacted portions of the Colonial Heights subdivision. Here, several mobile homes experienced significant damage to roofs and carports. A few experienced major damage when they were moved off their foundation.

A continuous damage path was noted north into the New Monrovia subdivision, where numerous homes experienced moderate to major damage, and several manufactured homes experienced complete roof loss. The Murray Middle School also experienced roof and vegetative damage. Damage continued northward into Rocky Point, a large subdivision along the St. Lucie River. Several homes within the western half of the community experienced minor to moderate damage to roofs, soffits, and carports; however, a home on SE Dennis Way experienced total roof loss.

The circulation then moved into the St. Lucie River and Intracoastal where it became a waterspout. Video from a resident along the Intracoastal indicates the waterspout dissipated before approaching the Jensen Beach Causeway.

The wider storm

Hurricane Milton moved ashore the west-central Florida coast as a category 3 hurricane on Oct 9 around 1930EST. The system continued slowly in an east-northeast trajectory across central Florida, becoming a category 1 hurricane before emerging into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Canaveral. The outer rainbands of Milton overspread the Florida peninsula earlier in the day, leading to a prolific tornado outbreak across Okeechobee, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, Osceola and Brevard counties with over 19 confirmed tornadoes within a 4-hour period. Milton's slow forward motion produced very heavy rainfall, with significant urban and street flooding particularly near and north of the center's track, as well as a significant river flood event along the St. Johns. Considerable tree damage and some structural damage occurred due to the system's tropical storm force winds, and hurricane force wind gusts, particularly near and north of the track of the center.

Began near Salerno (27.1244, -80.1938).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

17 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1220135. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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