Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2004

F0 tornado, Jupiter, Florida, September 6, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Palm Beach County on September 6, 2004, touching down at 4:40 PM EDT and reaching 10 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 6, 2004
Touchdown
4:40 PM EDT (20:40 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Palm Beach County
Touchdown point
26.930, -80.100
Lift-off point
26.930, -80.100
Record number
480

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado briefly touched down near Central Boulevard and I-95.

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

The warnings

46 minutes of warning. NWS MFL issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:54 UTC, 46 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:54 UTC20:45 UTCTornado WarningMFL

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 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.

Miami, FL (KMFL), 12:00Z

8.7 hours before the tornado, 125 km from the path. September 6, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2004-09-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2424 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 630 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, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2004-09-06The 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 48 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 15 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2424 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1972 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
630 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
48 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
59 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

3.3 hours after it, 125 km from the path. September 7, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2004-09-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 412 joules per kilogram, CIN -38, lifted condensation level 1131 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, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2004-09-07The 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 47 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 9 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
412 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-38 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1321 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1131 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
47 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
55 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 142 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:40 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 6, 2004

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 62:15 AM EDTF0Saint Johns, FL1.075$60,000
September 63:30 AM EDTF0Bryan, GA0.530
September 64:20 AM EDTF0Bulloch, GA5.060
September 69:00 AM EDTF1Liberty, GA8.575
September 610:32 AM EDTF0Polk, FL0.330
September 610:02 AM CDTF1Chatham, GA to SC6.0300
September 61:05 PM EDTF0Colleton, SC0.540
September 62:40 PM EDTF1Beaufort, SC1.075
September 62:55 PM EDTF1Jasper, SC2.01001
September 66:45 PM EDTF1Clay, FL0.575
September 67:10 PM EDTF0Saint Johns, FL1.075$10,000
September 67:20 PM EDTF0Saint Johns, FL1.075$20,000
September 610:00 PM EDTF0Pasco, FL0.230

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.