EF1 Tornado — Martin, Florida

2024-10-09 · near Salerno, Martin, Florida

Event narrative

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.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (27.1244, -80.1938)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1220135. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.