Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 1982

F0 tornado, Highlands County, Florida, June 17, 1982

This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Highlands County on June 17, 1982, touching down at 11:30 PM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 17, 1982
Touchdown
11:30 PM EDT (03:30 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Highlands County
Touchdown point
27.070, -82.450
Record number
694

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 00:00Z

3.5 hours before the tornado, 71 km from the path. June 18, 1982.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 1982-06-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 95 joules per kilogram, CIN -55, lifted condensation level 760 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 1982-06-18The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 219 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
95 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-55 J/kg
Surface CAPE
82 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
760 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
219 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
326 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 12:00Z

8.5 hours after it, 71 km from the path. June 18, 1982.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 1982-06-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 874 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 611 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 1982-06-18The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 225 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
874 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
993 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
611 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
225 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
332 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
3.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1982 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 17, 1982

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 1710:35 AM EDTF0Brevard, FL0.210$500 to $5,000
June 1710:45 AM EDTF0Broward, FL3.010$50,000 to $500,000
June 1711:10 AM MDTF0Fall River, SD0.110under $50
June 176:00 PM CDTF0Dallas, IA0.210under $50
June 178:00 PM EDTF1Polk, FL0.310$50,000 to $500,000
June 179:00 PM EDTF1Volusia, FL0.210$50,000 to $500,000
June 1710:15 PM EDTF2Hendry, FL8.01714$50,000 to $500,000
June 1712:15 AM EDTF2Highlands, FL1.02009$50 to $500
June 1712:30 AM EDTF1Highlands, FL0.510$50,000 to $500,000
June 171:20 AM EDTF0Volusia, FL0.410$500 to $5,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.