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Tornado damages structures in Copter Road area; NWS says low-level rotation escaped radar detection
Summary
A tornado struck the Copter Road area of Escambia County on Feb. 11, damaging structures and prompting 911 calls; the National Weather Service said radar sampled higher in the storm and did not detect the low-level rotation that produced the tornado, so no tornado warning was issued.
An Escambia County communications official said a tornado struck the Copter Road area of Escambia County on Tuesday, Feb. 11, damaging structures and prompting multiple 911 calls shortly before 4:30 p.m.
Jason Beeman, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service’s Mobile/Pensacola office, said the forecasted threat that day was a low-end, marginal risk focused west of Pensacola and that the tornado developed in a part of the storm below where local radar could reliably sample. “We had a dedicated radar operator, monitor the storms through the day. And basically, what we were finding for most of the day was these were pretty much showers,” Beeman said, adding that the radar was sampling roughly 3,000 to 3,500 feet in the storm while the rotation occurred lower, “maybe just up to about a thousand feet in the atmosphere.”
The county communications official said Escambia County Communications received 911 calls from witnesses reporting a tornado and possible entrapment. “Once I received a call, I immediately looked at radar, velocity, and other radar products that would signify a tornado. After not seeing that, I called our partners at the National Weather Service. They confirmed that what I was seeing is exactly what they were seeing,” the official said.
Because the low-level rotation was beneath the radar beam, Beeman said there was no clear radar signature to support a tornado warning ahead of the event. After receiving ground reports, the National Weather Service worked with Escambia County Emergency Management to assess damage, determine intensity and strength, and document the event.
No formal damage survey results or casualty counts were released during the briefing; county officials and the National Weather Service said they were conducting on-site assessments and would provide additional information when available.
