Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2004

F0 tornado, South Daytona to Daytona Beach Shrs, Florida, August 13, 2004

From South Daytona to Daytona Beach Shrs, this F0 tornado ran 30.0 miles across Volusia County on August 13, 2004, touching down at 7:40 PM EDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1.

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
August 13, 2004
Touchdown
7:40 PM EDT (23:40 UTC)
Path length
30.0 miles (48.3 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
County
Volusia County
Touchdown point
29.200, -81.000
Lift-off point
29.200, -81.000
Record number
1602

What the Weather Service recorded

An F1 tornado associated with an outer rainband of Hurricane Charley touched down South Daytona Beach destroying one home and damaging eight others, mostly due to fallen trees. The roof was torn off a strip mall store and a service station fire was started when the tornado destroyed two gas pumps and the canopy over the service island.

A waterspout associated with the outer rainbands of Hurricane Charley moved off the Atlantic over Daytona Beach Shores and tore the roof off a home on the barrier island injuring an elderly woman.

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

The warnings

31 minutes of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:09 UTC, 31 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:54 UTC21:00 UTCTornado WarningMLB
23:09 UTC23:45 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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:54 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 surface observations

Daytona Beach Regional (DAB), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:40 UTC73.471.650° 8 kt1014.2TS
21:53 UTC757240° 6 kt1014.2TS
22:33 UTC75.271.640° 11 kt1013.9-RA
22:53 UTC767230° 11 kt1013.5-TSRA
23:20 UTC75.269.830° 15 kt1012.2+TSRA SHRA
23:53 UTC747180° 7 kt181015.2-TSRA BR
00:40 UTC75.271.660° 8 kt1012.9-RA
00:53 UTC767360° 8 kt1012.2-RA BR
01:37 UTC78.873.4110° 13 kt271010.5+RA

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

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 125 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:39 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 2004 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 13, 2004

17 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 133:55 AM EDTF2Pender, NC5.0500329$1.3 million
August 135:11 AM EDTF0Onslow, NC0.130$30,000
August 135:53 AM EDTF1Carteret, NC0.3203$280,000
August 137:00 AM EDTF1Beaufort, NC2.030$100,000
August 1311:04 AM EDTF2Hendry, FL42.0100$50,000
August 1312:05 PM EDTF0Hardee, FL2.030
August 131:00 PM EDTF0Polk, FL1.030
August 131:55 PM EDTF0Polk, FL1.030
August 133:10 PM EDTF0DeSoto, FL1.030$10,000
August 133:40 PM EDTF0Lee, FL0.250
August 133:55 PM EDTF1Lee, FL1.8100
August 134:15 PM EDTF1Charlotte, FL2.550
August 134:30 PM EDTF0Osceola, FL0.230
August 136:30 PM EDTF0Belknap, NH7.040
August 137:26 PM EDTF1Volusia, FL0.440
August 138:26 PM EDTF1Osceola, FL2.0200
August 138:50 PM EDTF1Osceola, FL2.03,000

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.