Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2004

F1 tornado, Ft Green, Florida, June 4, 2004

This F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Hardee County on June 4, 2004, touching down at 2:50 PM EDT and reaching 70 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $310,000 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
June 4, 2004
Touchdown
2:50 PM EDT (18:50 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
70 yards (64 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$310,000
County
Hardee County
Touchdown point
27.600, -81.970
Lift-off point
27.620, -81.930
Record number
218

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado caused moderate damage to seven homes, destroyed several buildings at CF Industries, and destroyed part of an orange grove. Much of the damage was near the intersection of State Highway 62 and Baptist Church Road, extending northeast to the intersection of Alderman and County Road 664.

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.

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. The outlook in force was issued at 16:21 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.

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 12:00Z

6.8 hours before the tornado, 46 km from the path. June 4, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2004-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 754 joules per kilogram, CIN -95, lifted condensation level 890 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, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2004-06-04The 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 -25 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 knots.1939Sfc1 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
754 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-95 J/kg
Surface CAPE
77 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
890 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-25 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-20 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 00:00Z

5.2 hours after it, 46 km from the path. June 5, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2004-06-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1417 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 1113 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, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2004-06-05The 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 17 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1417 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1544 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1113 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
17 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
76 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
7.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Bartow (BOW), 41 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:50 UTC87.871.6280° 7 kt1019.6
17:50 UTC87.869.8300° 5 kt1018.6
18:55 UTC87.869.8 4 kt1018.3VCSH
19:52 UTC75.264.4280° 15 kt251019TS VCSH

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

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:48 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:00 UTCTSTM WND GST 58Lakeland Linder AirportPolk, FL
19:00 UTCTORNADO2 Ssw Fort GreenHardee, FLEOC REPORTED POSSIBLE TORNADO. SOME STRUCTURAL DAMAGE AND NUMEROUS TREES DOWN.
19:12 UTCHAIL 0.884 Sw Lakeland Linder AiPolk, FL
21:14 UTCHAIL 12 Sw RiverviewHillsborough, FLAT EXIT 250 ON INTERSTATE 75 GIBSONTON ROAD.

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

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 June 4, 2004

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 411:41 AM EDTF0Johnston, NC0.5100
June 412:03 PM EDTF0Wayne, NC1.0100
June 412:50 PM EDTF0Wilson, NC1.0100
June 42:09 PM EDTF0Pitt, NC0.125
June 42:15 PM EDTF0Pitt, NC0.125
June 43:35 PM EDTF0Martin, NC0.125
June 41:38 PM MDTF0Kimball, NE0.130
June 43:37 PM MDTF0Weld, CO0.150
June 46:15 PM EDTF1Tyrrell, NC0.1501$70,000
June 44:50 PM MDTF0Washington, CO0.150
June 46:01 PM MDTF0Phillips, CO0.150
June 46:18 PM MDTF0Phillips, CO0.150
June 46:20 PM MDTF0Phillips, CO0.150
June 46:26 PM MDTF0Greeley, KS0.250
June 49:50 PM CDTF0Decatur, KS0.250
June 410:09 PM CDTF0Decatur, KS0.250

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.