F1 tornado, North Miami Beach to Miami, Florida, March 27, 2003

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

March 27, 2003

Touchdown

5:15 PM EST (22:15 UTC)

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$80,000

Counties

Broward and Miami-Dade counties

Touchdown point

25.920, -80.180

Lift-off point

25.980, -80.150

Record number

695

A tornado touched down near the southeast corner of the Presidential Golf Course and traveled northeast before lifting in Hallandale Beach. The maximum intensity occurred between NE 17th and 19th Avenues from 196th to 200th Streets where several house roofs and screened porches were damaged.

The tornado initially touched down in East Hialeah, near NE 2nd Street and E 4th Avenue causing F0 damage to foliage. The tornado strengthened to F1 intensity as it moved east across E 9th Avenue. It achieved a maximum intensity of F2 with a maximum width of one third mile in an area from NW 37th to 27th Avenues in the Brownsville area. The intensity decreased to F1 as it moved east through Liberty City. The intensity further decreased to F0 as the tornado turned northeast and lifted just before entering Biscayne Bay near NE 70th Street.F1 to F2 damage began in an industrial area where several warehouse roofs were damaged. One large free-span roof was nearly completely torn off. Several semi-tractor trailers, apparently empty, were toppled, one of which fell onto two cars, crushing them. The tornado moved through a residential area known as Brownsville, heavily damaging 60 houses. At one of the homes, a 65-year old male who was sitting in this house was killed when debris penetrated the structure. His wife who took shelter in the bathroom was uninjured. A total of 343 other structures sustained damage, mostly to roofs and windows. Several vehicles were rolled over. Numerous utility poles were broken, large trees were uprooted and signs were downed.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

16 minutes of warning. NWS MFL issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:59 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:06 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.

Hollywood/N. Perry (HWO), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Miami radar (KAMX), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:15 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 2003 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.