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EF0 tornado in Indian River County, Florida

Tornado October 9, 2024 · Indian River County, Florida

EF0
Rating
7.8 mi
Whole path
50 yd
Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Okeechobee County → Indian River County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

The tornado that initially touched down in Okeechobee County and impacted two solar farms crossed briefly into Indian River County where it was tracked via a tornado debris signature (TDS) on KMLB radar. There is no known damage to infrastructure.

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 Blue Cypress Lake (27.6430, -80.8220).

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 1221441. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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