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.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19:54 UTC | 21:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | MLB |
| 23:09 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | MLB |
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) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:40 UTC | 73.4 | 71.6 | 50° 8 kt | 1014.2 | TS | |
| 21:53 UTC | 75 | 72 | 40° 6 kt | 1014.2 | TS | |
| 22:33 UTC | 75.2 | 71.6 | 40° 11 kt | 1013.9 | -RA | |
| 22:53 UTC | 76 | 72 | 30° 11 kt | 1013.5 | -TSRA | |
| 23:20 UTC | 75.2 | 69.8 | 30° 15 kt | 1012.2 | +TSRA SHRA | |
| 23:53 UTC | 74 | 71 | 80° 7 kt | 18 | 1015.2 | -TSRA BR |
| 00:40 UTC | 75.2 | 71.6 | 60° 8 kt | 1012.9 | -RA | |
| 00:53 UTC | 76 | 73 | 60° 8 kt | 1012.2 | -RA BR | |
| 01:37 UTC | 78.8 | 73.4 | 110° 13 kt | 27 | 1010.5 | +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.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 13 | 3:55 AM EDT | F2 | Pender, NC | 5.0 | 500 | 3 | 29 | $1.3 million |
| August 13 | 5:11 AM EDT | F0 | Onslow, NC | 0.1 | 30 | $30,000 | ||
| August 13 | 5:53 AM EDT | F1 | Carteret, NC | 0.3 | 20 | 3 | $280,000 | |
| August 13 | 7:00 AM EDT | F1 | Beaufort, NC | 2.0 | 30 | $100,000 | ||
| August 13 | 11:04 AM EDT | F2 | Hendry, FL | 42.0 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| August 13 | 12:05 PM EDT | F0 | Hardee, FL | 2.0 | 30 | |||
| August 13 | 1:00 PM EDT | F0 | Polk, FL | 1.0 | 30 | |||
| August 13 | 1:55 PM EDT | F0 | Polk, FL | 1.0 | 30 | |||
| August 13 | 3:10 PM EDT | F0 | DeSoto, FL | 1.0 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| August 13 | 3:40 PM EDT | F0 | Lee, FL | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| August 13 | 3:55 PM EDT | F1 | Lee, FL | 1.8 | 100 | |||
| August 13 | 4:15 PM EDT | F1 | Charlotte, FL | 2.5 | 50 | |||
| August 13 | 4:30 PM EDT | F0 | Osceola, FL | 0.2 | 30 | |||
| August 13 | 6:30 PM EDT | F0 | Belknap, NH | 7.0 | 40 | |||
| August 13 | 7:26 PM EDT | F1 | Volusia, FL | 0.4 | 40 | |||
| August 13 | 8:26 PM EDT | F1 | Osceola, FL | 2.0 | 200 | |||
| August 13 | 8:50 PM EDT | F1 | Osceola, FL | 2.0 | 3,000 |
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.