Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 1993

F0 tornado, Levy County, Florida, October 30, 1993

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Levy County on October 30, 1993, touching down at 10:16 AM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
October 30, 1993
Touchdown
10:16 AM EDT (14:16 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Levy County
Touchdown point
29.100, -82.630
Record number
1141

What the Weather Service recorded

A small tornado damaged trees.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:59 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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), 12:00Z

2.3 hours before the tornado, 157 km from the path. October 30, 1993.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 1993-10-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2419 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 587 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 1993-10-30The 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 305 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 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
2419 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2027 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
587 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
305 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
339 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
3.7
Supercell composite
23.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

9.7 hours after it, 157 km from the path. October 31, 1993.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 1993-10-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 15 joules per kilogram, CIN -141, lifted condensation level 525 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 1993-10-31The 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 39 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 75 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
15 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-141 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
525 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
75 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
39 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
191 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.9
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1993 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of October 30, 1993

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 302:51 AM EDTF1Levy, FL1.0601$50,000 to $500,000
October 303:25 AM CDTF0Gulf, FL0.110
October 304:30 AM EDTF2Lee, GA5.0750327$5 million to $50 million
October 309:20 AM EDTF0Levy, FL0.110$50 to $500
October 309:39 AM EDTF0Alachua, FL0.110
October 309:50 AM EDTF0Alachua, FL0.110
October 309:55 AM EDTF1Levy, FL1.060$500,000 to $5 million
October 3010:30 AM EDTF1Lee, FL1.2701$500,000 to $5 million
October 3011:05 AM EDTF0Lee, FL0.110$50,000 to $500,000
October 3011:08 AM EDTF0Citrus, FL0.110$50 to $500
October 3011:19 AM EDTF0Citrus, FL0.110$50 to $500
October 3010:48 AM CDTF0Escambia, FL0.110$50 to $500
October 307:30 PM EDTF0Sarasota, FL0.540$5,000 to $50,000
October 3010:22 PM EDTF0Lee, FL0.540

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.