Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2001

F1 tornado, Melbourne to Cocoa, Florida, September 14, 2001

From Melbourne to Cocoa, this F1 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Brevard County on September 14, 2001, touching down at 7:59 AM EDT and reaching 30 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 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
September 14, 2001
Touchdown
7:59 AM EDT (11:59 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Brevard County
Touchdown point
28.230, -80.600
Lift-off point
28.230, -80.600
Record number
1115

What the Weather Service recorded

A rain band associated with Tropical Storm Gabrielle moving north near the Florida coastline produced a small F0 tornado on the barrier island east of the Intracoastal Waterway. The tornado seriously damaged the roof of a boat dry storage building and overturned boats in the boatyard. A few trees were blown down and windows were blown out of automobiles.

A rain band associated with Tropical Storm Gabrielle moving north along the Florida coastline produced a small F1 tornado over Patrick Air Force Base. The tornado produced no damage but observation equipment recorded a gust to 86 knots as the tornado passed.

A rain band associated with Tropical Storm Gabrielle moving north along the Intracoastal Waterway moved onshore in the old downtown area of Cocoa. The tornado move northwest about 1.7 miles severely damaging the roof of a gas distributor, a bus station and two houses. The tornado damaged 6 mobile homes and blew out many windows.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
11:22 UTC11:45 UTCTornado WarningMLB
12:18 UTC12:45 UTCTornado WarningMLB
12:47 UTC13:15 UTCTornado WarningMLB

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 05:56 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.

Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), 00:00Z

12.0 hours before the tornado, 28 km from the path. September 14, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2001-09-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 730 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 671 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, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2001-09-14The 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 29 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 11 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
730 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1320 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
671 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
29 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
53 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), 12:00Z

0.0 hours before the tornado, 28 km from the path. September 14, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2001-09-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 178 joules per kilogram, CIN -41, lifted condensation level 549 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, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2001-09-14The 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 306 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
178 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-41 J/kg
Surface CAPE
397 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
549 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
306 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
583 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
4.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Patrick Afb/Cocoa B (COF), 1 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
10:55 UTC73.471.620° 15 kt1006.8RA BR
11:09 UTC73.471.630° 17 kt1006.8RA BR
11:13 UTC75.271.630° 17 kt1006.8+RA BR
11:37 UTC75.273.450° 18 kt261006.4+RA BR
11:59 UTC75.273.430° 20 kt261005.8+FC +SHRA BR
12:44 UTC75.273.4100° 22 kt311005.8+RA BR
12:55 UTC7775.290° 24 kt301005.1RA BR
13:55 UTC78.875.2100° 28 kt351003-RA BR

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

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 14 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:58 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 September 14, 2001

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 144:01 AM EDTF0Lee, FL8.05$10,000
September 144:21 AM EDTF0Lee, FL19.25$30,000
September 144:41 AM EDTF0Charlotte, FL15.55$40,000
September 145:56 AM EDTF0Manatee, FL16.05$20,000
September 147:25 AM EDTF0Indian River, FL0.230$3,000
September 147:55 AM EDTF0Brevard, FL0.230$50,000
September 148:48 AM EDTF1Brevard, FL1.850$450,000
September 141:08 PM EDTF0Flagler, FL0.110
September 141:35 PM EDTF0Flagler, FL0.110$1,000
September 142:10 PM EDTF0Saint Johns, FL0.110
September 142:55 PM EDTF0Saint Johns, FL0.110
September 145:20 PM EDTF0Volusia, FL0.830$60,000
September 145:21 PM EDTF0Putnam, FL0.110
September 146:15 PM EDTF0Saint Johns, FL0.110
September 146:35 PM EDTF0Flagler, FL0.110$1,000
September 146:45 PM EDTF0Flagler, FL0.110$2,000

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.