EF1 tornado in Columbia County, Florida

Tornado March 16, 2025 · Columbia County, Florida

EF1

Rating

2.7 mi

Whole path

120 yd

Path width

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 120 yards (0.07 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

At approximately 11:38 AM EDT, a tornado with estimated peak winds

of 90 mph touched down over the Osceola National Forest near NE

Olino Rd, just north of Interstate 10 in Olustee, FL. The tornado

broke off many small branches, snapped tree trunks of many small

pines trees, and ripped the bark off of a medium sized pine tree

at NE Olino Rd near NE Gum Swamp Rd before quickly progressing

northeastward into a heavily forested area. The tornado then

proceeded to snap the trunks of many small pine trees on County

Road 250A as well as a service road just off of CR 250A before

continuing into more dense forest to its northeast. The width of

the tornado's track became much more narrow as it crossed into

far western Baker County and ended near Forest Road 211, where

several more small tree trunks were snapped.

The wider storm

A strong pre-frontal squall line moved across the region during the day. A slight risk of severe storms was in place for the local area with bulk shear of 45-60 kts phased with diurnal instability and 0-3 km SRH near 300 s2/m2 posing a tornado threat, especially for locations north of the Interstate 10 corridor. A couple of tornadoes impacted the local area with other reports of wind damage.

Began near Mt Carrie (30.2663, -82.4884).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1242361. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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