Yes--It WAS a Tornado at Pensacola Beach Thursday Night

The tornado strengthened over water and hit Pensacola Beach Thursday from North to South--according to the experts..

I happened to be at my property on Pensacola Beach in Tristan Towers the night of the Hurricane last week on Thursday evenng.  And I knew this was something out of the ordinary when I watched my windows and sliding doors (as thick as marine acquariums) bow inward and everything on my patio/balcony start to fly around in the air like they were dancing.  My gas BBQ grill was smashed and the propane tank was rolling around like a like the metal ball in a Pinball machine.  It came on suddenly at about 8:50 PM.  In an ill-advised and feeble attempt at salvaging what I could as quickly as possible--I attempted to open the sliding door to pull some of the items into the condo---and when I did I realized it would be dangerous to attempt any sort of a salvage as the palm trees below were bent sideways and the rain was sheeting horizontally and my ears popped in the pressure of the outside air.  It was surreal. So I lost a chair and a BBQ.  Other than that--no damage in my unit.  But I was struck how a lightning and rain storm quickly turned into such a violent wind event that ended up smashing our gates to the parking lot, blowing out a ground floor wall, and  making a solidly-built, 15 story building rock back and forth.  Answer--it wasn't a windstorm--it was a Tornado.

Late Sunday morning Eric Gilmore sent the board confirmation of this--which we all suspected as we saw the damage last Friday morning to Galvez Court directly adjacent to Tristan Towers.  They got the brunt of it.

So the below description is from Iowa State University specific to this event on Pensacola Beach.  It is interesting and telling.

The tornado then likely continued as a waterspout traversing Pensacola Bay
dodging the western tip of Gulf Breeze before wrapping back
southeast towards Pensacola Beach. The tornado quickly
strengthened as it crossed Fort Pickens Rd near Galvez CT.
Significant damage to homes built to withstand significant
hurricanes was noted and thus damage estimates from this location leaned on
the higher side for given damage indicators. Several of the homes
across a quarter mile swath had damage to siding including
several sides beings completely removed. A few homes lost 20 to
60 percent of metal roofing material even with proper hurricane
code anchors. Several bottom floor garages were completely gutted
as garage doors were blown in and destroyed. Bottom exterior walls
blew out leading to complete exposure of the bottom floors.
Several palm trees across the area were snapped a few feet off the
ground. The most notable damage was right along Fort Pickens Rd
where a house under construction had the entire top floor and
roof removed. This damage was put on the lower end of estimates
as the house was under construction and an opening on the north
side may have helped the failure of the upper walls and floors.
However, a large dumpster likely weighing several hundred pounds
was thrown roughly 50-70 yards due east and was deposited between
two palm trees about 2 feet off the ground. The damage to the
home, dumpster combined with a garage door that failed being
wrapped around a concrete piling resulted in the peak wind
estimate of 120 mph. 

The tornado likely crossed over Fort Pickens Rd and into the 
Gulf of Mexico where it likely dissipated. One other interesting 
damage note was that at least two boats were tossed on the Pensacola 
Bay side. One boat was found about 20-30 yards from the boat lift 
upside down in the water. The other boat was thrown off the lift 
and was reportedly found near Deer Point about a mile north across 
the bay. This boat likely floated over there but still impressive. 
There is no damage indicator for boats; however, the sheer 
impressiveness helped support the higher rating given the surrounding 
damage indicators.