Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2005

F0 tornado, Pinellas Park, Florida, July 9, 2005

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Pinellas County on July 9, 2005, touching down at 6:55 AM EDT and reaching 40 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
July 9, 2005
Touchdown
6:55 AM EDT (10:55 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Pinellas County
Touchdown point
27.820, -82.680
Lift-off point
27.820, -82.700
Record number
282

What the Weather Service recorded

A training spotter reported a brief tornado that downed several trees.

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

The warnings

25 minutes of warning. NWS TBW issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:30 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:30 UTC11:00 UTCTornado WarningTBW
17:07 UTC18:00 UTCTornado WarningTBW

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 05:40 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), 00:00Z

10.9 hours before the tornado, 31 km from the path. July 9, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2005-07-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 877 joules per kilogram, CIN -52, lifted condensation level 847 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 2005-07-09The 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 90 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 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
877 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-52 J/kg
Surface CAPE
953 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
847 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
90 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
137 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.1 hours after it, 31 km from the path. July 9, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2005-07-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 77 joules per kilogram, CIN -118, lifted condensation level 739 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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 2005-07-09The 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 0 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 0 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
77 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-118 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
739 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
0 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
0 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 31 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:55 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
10:00 UTCTORNADOBradentonManatee, FL2 HOMES WITH MINOR DAMAGE. TREE DOWN ON A CAR.
10:30 UTCTORNADOTampaHillsborough, FLHAM RADIO REPORT OF A TORNADO TOUCHDOWN NEAR THE PORT OF TAMPA. BUILDING AND TREE DAMAGE REPORTED.
10:55 UTCTSTM WND DMGPinellas ParkPinellas, FLTREES DOWN. ESTIMATED WIND GUST OF 60 MPH.
10:55 UTCTROPICAL STORMPinellas ParkPinellas, FLTREES DOWN. ESTIMATED WIND GUST OF 60 MPH.
10:58 UTCTORNADOSaint PetersburgPinellas, FLLAW ENFORCEMENT RELAY REPORT OF A PUBLIC SIGHTING OF A TORNADO TOUCHDOWN. TREES DOWN.
11:15 UTCTSTM WND DMGBrandonHillsborough, FLNUMEROUS TREE BRANCHES DOWN AT THE CORNER OF BRYON AND LUMSDEN.
11:15 UTCTROPICAL STORMBrandonHillsborough, FLNUMEROUS TREE BRANCHES DOWN AT THE CORNER OF BRYON AND LUMSDEN.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 9, 2005

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 95:50 AM EDTF0Hardee, FL1.0100$50,000
July 96:00 AM EDTF1Manatee, FL0.5150$210,000
July 96:30 AM EDTF0Hillsborough, FL0.640$40,000
July 96:30 AM EDTF0Hillsborough, FL0.340
July 912:00 PM EDTF0Hillsborough, FL0.540
July 92:40 PM EDTF0Citrus, FL0.740
July 96:54 PM MDTF0Lincoln, CO0.150
July 910:40 PM EDTF0Suwannee, FL1.025

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.