EF1 Tornado — Baker, Florida

2025-03-16 · near Olustee, Baker, Florida

Event narrative

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.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (30.2790, -82.4580)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1245909. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.