F2 tornado, Jacksonville Intl Ap, Florida, August 12, 2004

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

   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

F2

Date

August 12, 2004

Touchdown

4:00 PM EDT (20:00 UTC)

Path length

7.0 miles (11.3 km)

Path width

1 yards (1 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Duval County

Touchdown point

30.470, -81.800

Lift-off point

30.400, -81.680

Record number

307

1500: Tornado sighted on ground at the intersection of Imeson and Pritchard Rd. 1500: 3 train cars derailed in Edgewood area of town. 1500: Tornado progressing toward the Edgewood area...ripping up trees in its path. 1505: Tornado about 1 mile from Trained Storm Spotter who was at 601 Crestwood Ave. Tornado was observed in the Norwood and Edgewood areas of town. 1530: Trees on home at Francis and Cleveland Roads and 3056 Francis Road. Tree on house along Pettiford Drive. Powerlines down across the Edgewood area. Mobile home overturned on Edgewood Ave and U.S. 1 (New Kings Road). 6 trees broken. A police sub-station off of U.S. 1 and Edgewood had 6 cars and 1 tractor trailer damaged. Report from Trained Storm Spotter. 1530: Roof ripped off of grocery store at Ina Road and Imeson. Building bricks were broken off and hit 11 cars which caused damage. Trees down on homes at 6024 and 6026 Bagley Road. 1550: Radio reports of damage and debris along New Kings Road. Damage included downed and snapped trees and destroyed billboards. Road closures along New Kings Road heard at 1550 EST. 1550: Debris in trailer park including mattresses on roofs. 1600: Tornado sighted near West 45th Street and U.S. 1 in northwest Jacksonville. 1615: Numerous trees down and snapped in the Edgewood area of Jacksonville.

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

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 13:01 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.

Jacksonville Intl (JAX), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 7 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:58 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

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

16 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.