F1 tornado, (Mia)Miami Intl, Florida, January 3, 1996

1. F040 to 72 mph

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

2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F1

Date

January 3, 1996

Touchdown

7:07 AM CST (13:07 UTC)

Path length

7.0 miles (11.3 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

9

Property damage

$1.2 million

County

Not recorded

Touchdown point

25.680, -80.420

Lift-off point

25.750, -80.330

Record number

4

A squall line from the Gulf of Mexico moved inland across the south Florida Peninsula. A bow echo developed along the squall line as it approached the western suburbs of Miami, and a tornado formed in conjuction with the bow echo. The tornado first touched down near S.W. 96 Street and 144 Avenue, knocking down a small tree. The tornado's path was intermittent for the first three and one-half miles then became continuous from S.W. 67 Street and 123 Avenue to where it lifted, on the north side of S.W. 24 Street and 93 Court. From its initial touchdown until it crossed Westwood Lake, intensity was rated as F0, with minor roof damage and downed trees and fences. Near S.W. 42 Street and 108 Avenue, the tornado intensified to a strong category F1, with wind gusts estimated around 110 mph, and it maintained this intensity until lifting. Throughout its lifetime, the tornado moved on a northeast track at a forward speed of 35 mph. Along the F1 portion of the track, nine persons were injured, three requiring hospitalization. Two of the more serious injuries occurred when the victim's cars were rolled. Major damage occurred to 26 buildings, mostly residences, but two churches, a lumber yard and a strip shopping center also sustained damaged. Another 50 buildings sustained minor damage. Six vehicles were overturned or blown several yards. Power lines were blown down leaving 20,000 users without electricity for up to 12 hours.

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

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:37 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 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.

The Miami radar (KAMX), 12 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:04 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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