Alert archive / Florida / Tornado Warnings in 2001

Tornado Warning 12, NWS Melbourne, FL

September 14, 2001Brevard County, Florida

NWS Melbourne, FL issued this tornado warning at Sep 14, 2001, 8:18 AM EDT for Brevard County, Florida. It was in force for 27 min. 1 report came from inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named, with what was reported inside it.

The facts

Issued: Sep 14, 2001, 8:18 AM EDT (12:18 UTC)
Expired: Sep 14, 2001, 8:45 AM EDT
In force: 27 min
Issued by: NWS Melbourne, FL
Area: Whole counties

County Brevard County, FL

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 21 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 12:18 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

What was reported inside it

Time	Report	Where	Remark
Sep 14, 8:48 AM EDT	Tornado F1	Cocoa, FL	A rain band associated with Tropical Storm Gabrielle moving north along the Intracoastal Waterway moved onshore in the old downtown area of Cocoa. The tornado move northwest about 1.7 miles severely damaging the roof of a gas distributor, a bus station and two

NCEI Storm Data entries that began inside the alert's area while it was in force. Before 2003 the local storm report archive is thin, so this is the record of what happened rather than what was phoned in.

The watch it was issued in

The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
Sep 14, 4:45 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), launched 12:00Z, 0.3 hours before the alert went out and 27 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 178 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -41 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 549 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 46 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 306 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 583 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.4
Supercell composite: 4.8

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

206 
WFUS52 KMLB 141219
TORMLB
FLC009-141245-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL
818 AM EDT FRI SEP 14 2001

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  SOUTH CENTRAL BREVARD COUNTY
  IN EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA

* UNTIL 845 AM EDT.

* AT 815 AM EDT...WEATHER SPOTTERS REPORTED A TORNADO 2 MILES
  NORTHEAST OF SATELLITE BEACH...MOVING NORTH AT 20 MPH.

* THE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO BE...
  NEAR PATRICK AIRFORCE BASE AT 830 AM EDT
  NEAR MERRITT ISLAND AT 835 AM EDT
  NEAR COCOA BEACH AT 840 AM EDT
  NEAR CAPE CANAVERAL...PORT CANAVERAL AT 845 AM EDT

REPEATING...A TORNADO HAS BEEN REPORTED TAKE COVER NOW

IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF A TORNADO...THE SAFEST PLACE IS IN A STRONG
BUILDING ON THE LOWEST FLOOR. MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM SUCH AS A
BATHROOM OR CLOSET. KEEP AWAY FROM WINDOWS. IF NECESSARY...GET UNDER
A WORKBENCH OR OTHER PIECE OF STURDY FURNITURE. USE BLANKETS OR
PILLOWS TO COVER YOUR BODY. ABANDON YOUR MOBILE HOME OR RV FOR MORE
SUBSTANTIAL SHELTER. IF YOU ARE CAUGHT OUTSIDE...GET INTO AN
UNFLOODED DITCH OR LOW SPOT AND COVER YOUR HEAD WITH YOUR HANDS AND
ARMS. ABANDON YOUR VEHICLE IF THE TORNADO IS NEARBY.

$$

LAT...LON 2801 8060 2804 8040 2862 8049 2856 8079

&

RL

The office that day

Everything else NWS Melbourne, FL issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Sep 14, 7:22 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	MLB	Brevard	23 min
Sep 14, 8:47 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	MLB	Brevard	28 min
Sep 14, 10:16 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	MLB	Orange	29 min
Sep 14, 5:02 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	MLB	Volusia	43 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Florida, 2001 Every tornado warning in 2001 Tornadoes in 2001

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.