Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2001

F0 tornado, Murdock, Florida, June 20, 2001

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Charlotte County on June 20, 2001, touching down at 3:45 PM EDT and reaching 5 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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 20, 2001
Touchdown
3:45 PM EDT (19:45 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
5 yards (5 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Charlotte County
Touchdown point
27.030, -82.130
Lift-off point
27.030, -82.130
Record number
250

What the Weather Service recorded

A Skywarn Spotter reported a small F0 tornado, briefly touched downed and toppled a few large trees and several large branches near the intersection of Veterans Boulevard and Yorkshire Street in Murdock.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:53 UTC20:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 15:56 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

7.8 hours before the tornado, 80 km from the path. June 20, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2001-06-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 636 joules per kilogram, CIN -55, lifted condensation level 1062 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2001-06-20The 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 -10 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 8 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
636 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-55 J/kg
Surface CAPE
564 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1062 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-10 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
10 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.2 hours after it, 80 km from the path. June 21, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2001-06-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 587 joules per kilogram, CIN -97, lifted condensation level 1329 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2001-06-21The 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 -78 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
587 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-97 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1415 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1329 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-78 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-67 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Punta Gorda (PGD), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:53 UTC91680° 0 kt1020.7
18:53 UTC8574360° 5 kt1020TSRA
18:56 UTC84.273.410° 10 kt241020.3+TSRA
19:02 UTC80.669.870° 9 kt371020+TSRA
19:10 UTC78.873.4100° 17 kt231020.3TSRA
19:19 UTC75.271.6140° 18 kt1021-TSRA BR
19:27 UTC73.469.8140° 18 kt281020.7-TSRA
19:53 UTC7369170° 15 kt1019.6-TSRA
20:53 UTC776940° 6 kt1020.3-TSRA
21:04 UTC7769.840° 6 kt1020.3
21:14 UTC75.269.820° 8 kt1020.3TS
21:29 UTC75.271.650° 6 kt1020
21:39 UTC75.271.670° 6 kt1020VCTS -RA

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

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:43 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 20, 2001

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 201:04 PM CDTF0Benson, ND2.025
June 201:25 PM CDTF0Benson, ND0.525
June 201:30 PM CDTF0Pierce, ND0.040
June 201:35 PM CDTF0Benson, ND0.525
June 201:55 PM CDTF0Grand Forks, ND0.525
June 203:20 PM CDTF0Traill, ND0.525
June 204:35 PM EDTF0Sarasota, FL0.15
June 203:35 PM CDTF0Traill, ND0.525
June 203:41 PM CDTF0Traill, ND0.525
June 208:14 PM EDTF1Elk, PA3.060$10,000
June 207:16 PM MDTF0Adams, CO0.125
June 207:25 PM MDTF0Adams, CO0.125
June 208:10 PM MDTF0Elbert, CO0.1150

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.