Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 1994

F0 tornado, Hillsborough County, Florida, June 27, 1994

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Hillsborough County on June 27, 1994, touching down at 10:20 PM 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
June 27, 1994
Touchdown
10:20 PM EDT (02:20 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hillsborough County
Touchdown point
27.980, -82.470
Record number
658

The warnings

13 minutes of warning. NWS TBW issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:07 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
02:01 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTBW
02:07 UTC02:45 UTCTornado WarningTBW

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:17 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), 00:00Z

2.3 hours before the tornado, 31 km from the path. June 28, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 1994-06-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2345 joules per kilogram, CIN -34, lifted condensation level 1217 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 1994-06-28The 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 -26 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 9 knots.1939Sfc1 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
2345 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-34 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2234 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1217 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-7 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

9.7 hours after it, 31 km from the path. June 28, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 1994-06-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1102 joules per kilogram, CIN -82, lifted condensation level 1068 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 12:00Z on 1994-06-28The 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 -1 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 4 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1102 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-82 J/kg
Surface CAPE
122 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1068 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-1 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-14 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Tampa International Airport (TPA), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
01:00 UTC8474300° 6 kt1019
01:41 UTC170° 8 kt1019
02:00 UTC7975220° 16 kt231019.6TSRA
02:10 UTC190° 10 kt371020.3
02:28 UTC150° 8 kt1019.6
03:00 UTC726870° 8 kt1020.3TSRA
03:16 UTC140° 4 kt1020
04:00 UTC7473230° 6 kt1018.6

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1994 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 27, 1994

22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 272:00 AM EDTF0Hall, GA0.223$50 to $500
June 272:00 AM EDTF1Bartow, GA0.5502$50,000 to $500,000
June 272:15 AM EDTF1Habersham, GA0.750$50,000 to $500,000
June 272:45 AM EDTF0Jackson, GA0.523$500 to $5,000
June 272:45 AM EDTF0Madison, GA0.220$50,000 to $500,000
June 273:15 AM EDTF2Gwinnett, GA8.02001$500,000 to $5 million
June 273:40 AM EDTF1Walton, GA1.0509$50,000 to $500,000
June 276:30 AM EDTF0Walton, GA9.023$50,000 to $500,000
June 277:35 AM EDTF1Oconee, GA2.55013$50,000 to $500,000
June 278:00 AM EDTF1Rockdale, GA10.0733$500,000 to $5 million
June 278:10 AM EDTF2Morgan, GA5.0100$500,000 to $5 million
June 279:08 AM EDTF1Tyrrell, NC0.523$50,000 to $500,000
June 2710:47 AM EDTF1Tyrrell, NC1.050$50,000 to $500,000
June 2712:30 PM EDTF1Kent, DE15.0300$5,000 to $50,000
June 271:45 PM EDTF1Columbia, PA0.273$50,000 to $500,000
June 271:48 PM EDTF1Craven, NC0.5100$50,000 to $500,000
June 275:15 PM CDTF0Pine, MN0.110under $50
June 276:40 PM CDTF1Douglas, WI1.0100$5,000 to $50,000
June 277:50 PM EDTF0Manatee, FL0.110$500 to $5,000
June 277:15 PM CDTF1Douglas, WI4.0250$50,000 to $500,000
June 277:34 PM CDTF0Barron, WI0.250
June 2710:50 PM EDTF1Hillsborough, FL1.030$50,000 to $500,000

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.