F2 tornado — Bay County, Florida

F2 tornado in Bay County, Florida

Tornado January 2, 1999 · Bay County, Florida

Rating

3.8 mi

Path length

100 yd

Path width

Injuries

$4.0M

Damage as recorded

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado initially struck at Panama City Beach damaging several homes and a few hotels within a four-block area surrounded by Sunset Ave-Thomas and Holiday Dr. The tornado again touched down two miles to the north at the Hathaway Bridge (U.S. Highway 98) where a six-car pileup injured seven. Finally, the tornado lifted over St. Andrews Bay and descended about a mile further north into a residential area surrounded by Big Daddy-Marina Dr. and Bay Circle where numerous homes and businesses were damaged. Scattered power outages affected several thousand customers in West Panama City and Panama City Beach.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5683870. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

F2 tornado in Bay County, Florida

What the National Weather Service wrote

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