EF1 Tornado — Bradford, Florida

2021-12-08 · near Starke, Bradford, Florida

Event narrative

Numerous hard and softwood trees where snapped and some fell onto homes causing structural damage across the ESE of Starke. from Thomson Street to Wilson Road near the Shands Starke Medical Center. One home was shifted off of its foundation due to a large tree falling onto it. Metal roof panels were stripped away from a canopy.

Wider weather episode

A prefrontal squall line passed across northeast Florida during the afternoon and early evening hours. A few bowing segments developed within the broader line of thunderstorms and one of these features generated a brief tornado as it tracked east-southeastward around 30 MPH across the Starke FL area. A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was issued for the area with potential for brief and isolated tornadoes.

The synoptic environment had strong shear, but an inversion near 500 mb limited updraft stretching and kept convection relatively shallow as the squall line moved across the area. During the late afternoon, a bowing segment coincided with a nose of low level moisture (dew pt rose to near 70 deg) as the convection moved east across Bradford county near Starke. This is where there was enough low level instability and shear to support a mesovortex tornado along the leading edge of the bow.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (29.9412, -82.1101)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 993011. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.