Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2004

F1 tornado, Golden Gate, Florida, April 12, 2004

This F1 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Collier County on April 12, 2004, touching down at 6:45 AM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 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 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
April 12, 2004
Touchdown
6:45 AM EDT (10:45 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$100,000
County
Collier County
Touchdown point
26.170, -81.670
Lift-off point
26.170, -81.670
Record number
3

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado associated with a squall line touched down near I-75 and Santa Barbara Boulevard. and lifted near the Golden Gate Parkway. The tornado caused minor roof damage to houses, destroyed sheds and uprooted trees. Minor damage was also reported at Naples Municipal Airport.

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
11:09 UTC11:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMFL
11:46 UTC12:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMFL

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:59 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.

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 143 km from the path. April 12, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2004-04-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 801 joules per kilogram, CIN -40, lifted condensation level 992 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, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2004-04-12The 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 63 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
801 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-40 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1881 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
992 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
174 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 12:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 143 km from the path. April 12, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2004-04-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1786 joules per kilogram, CIN -52, lifted condensation level 675 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, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2004-04-12The 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 240 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1786 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-52 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2484 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
675 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
240 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
295 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.1
Supercell composite
10.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Naples Municipal (APF), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
08:53 UTC7270120° 14 kt1005.1
09:28 UTC73.469.8140° 14 kt1004.7
09:53 UTC7371130° 10 kt1005.4
10:16 UTC75.271.6140° 12 kt1005.4
10:34 UTC7773.4240° 12 kt201009.1TS
10:44 UTC7773.4220° 14 kt1010.5-RA
10:53 UTC7775260° 23 kt401011.5+TSRA BR
11:02 UTC6866.2290° 35 kt451012.9+TSRA BR
11:11 UTC66.264.4290° 28 kt381013.2TSRA BR
11:13 UTC66.264.4300° 25 kt381013.2+TSRA SHRA BR
11:23 UTC66.264.4310° 21 kt351013.2+TSRA SHRA BR
11:34 UTC6864.4310° 21 kt401013.2-RA BR
11:53 UTC6865350° 18 kt311013.5VCTS -RA
12:08 UTC6864.4330° 14 kt271013.9-RA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 12, 2004

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 127:05 AM EDTF0Charlotte, FL0.320$30,000

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.