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EF1 tornado in Polk County, Florida

Tornado December 16, 2020 · Polk County, Florida

EF1

Rating

12.9 mi

Whole path

250 yd

Path width

$280K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 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

This tornado first touched down near Plant City in eastern Hillsborough County where it destroyed a small out building near Plant City before moving into Polk County and tracked approximately another 6 miles. The tornado significantly damaged a home in North Lakeland just north of Lake Gibson on Gibson Shores Drive, and downed numerous trees in this area in addition to two small barns that were destroyed. In Polk County, 1 home was significantly damaged and 9 others received minor damage along with the 2 small barns that were destroyed.

The wider storm

Low pressure in the Gulf of Mexico moved into the Florida Panhandle with a trailing cold front moving through West Central Florida in the afternoon. A surge of moisture ahead of the front created a brief opportunity for strong and locally severe storms. The strongest thunderstorm cell tracked from central Pinellas County to north of Plant City, then into north Lakeland, dropping a tornado sporadically along its path.

Began near Galloway (28.0940, -82.0560).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Pinellas County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 995032. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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