Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2004

F0 tornado, Flagler Beach, Florida, September 25, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Flagler County on September 25, 2004, touching down at 12:30 AM EDT and reaching 1 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
September 25, 2004
Touchdown
12:30 AM EDT (04:30 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
1 yards (1 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Flagler County
Touchdown point
29.470, -81.130
Lift-off point
29.470, -81.130
Record number
431

What the Weather Service recorded

Hurricane "Jeanne"An F0 tornado ripped communications antennas from the roof of Aliki Tower Condominiums in Flagler Beach.

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

The warnings

2 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:28 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
04:28 UTC05:00 UTCTornado WarningJAX
15:43 UTC16:30 UTCTornado WarningJAX

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 00:46 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), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
02:53 UTC827430° 24 kt351005.4
03:53 UTC827440° 27 kt341004.4
04:19 UTC82.473.430° 27 kt36
04:53 UTC827430° 29 kt351003.7
05:28 UTC80.673.440° 30 kt401003.4
05:53 UTC817340° 29 kt371002.7

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

The radar

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:29 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 September 25, 2004

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 2511:04 PM EDTF1Indian River, FL0.530$20,000

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.