Tornado Roof Damage in Florida: What to Do First

The basics

What does tornado roof damage look like in Florida?

Torn or missing shingles, lifted tile, peeled metal panels and bare decking, often on one house while the next looks fine.

A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that reaches the ground from a thunderstorm. It can form at any time of day or night and any time of year, according to the National Weather Service. The path is narrow. That is why one roof can lose half its covering while a neighbor across the street only loses a few shingles.

The National Weather Service (NWS) rates tornadoes after the fact by surveying the damage. The Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale runs from EF0 (65 to 85 mph gusts) to EF2 (111 to 135 mph) to EF5 (over 200 mph). Hurricane Milton showed what that looks like on Florida roofs on October 9, 2024. An EF1 tornado at Matlacha, with an estimated peak wind of 105 mph, ripped half the roof off one home. It also ripped half the roof off a mobile home and collapsed walls under it. An EF2 tornado in Fort Myers, estimated at 132 mph, tore a large portion of a roof off a home along a path of 16.56 miles. On that same street, roof damage across the road was already being repaired when the survey crew arrived.

You do not need a tornado like that to lose a roof covering. Even an EF0 tornado can damage a home. The NWS survey of the Jonathan Harbour EF0 tornado (80 mph) lists damage to one home and a destroyed houseboat.

Tornado vs hurricane

How is a tornado different from a hurricane for your roof?

A tornado cuts a narrow, violent path, and hurricane season brings them. Tornado winds can be higher than the wind speeds building codes design for.

Hurricanes can set off tornadoes. During the late summer and fall, the NWS says tropical cyclones increase the number of tornadoes in Florida, and even weak systems can spawn tornadoes far from the center. Tropical Storm Josephine produced a record 20 tornadoes in October 1996. Hurricane Milton went far past that. At least 46 tornadoes were confirmed in Florida from just before midnight on October 8 through October 9, 2024. That is a state record for one day, up from 15 set by Hurricane Irma in September 2017. Those counts are preliminary, from NWS data compiled by the Southeast Regional Climate Center.

Outside hurricane season, Florida tornado counts peak in June, July and August, and the NWS says the strongest and most dangerous Florida tornadoes historically come in February, March and April. So a roof can see a tornado in any month.

The code does not design ordinary houses for these winds. A Pacific Northwest National Laboratory guide says tornado winds can be significantly higher than the design wind speeds in modern building codes. It adds that only a tornado safe room designed to FEMA P-361 criteria gives near-absolute life-safety protection. A good roof does not make a house tornado-proof. It does cut down what the wind can get hold of.

One Florida rule helps here. When a site-built single-family home is reroofed, Florida Statute 553.844(3)(a) requires roof-deck attachment to be strengthened or corrected during the reroof, with a secondary water barrier. See our guide on roof deck damage and the Hurricane Milton roof guide for Manatee and Sarasota.