Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2006

F0 tornado, Deer Park to Holopaw, Florida, August 30, 2006

From Deer Park to Holopaw, this F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Osceola County on August 30, 2006, touching down at 3:38 PM EDT and reaching 30 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
August 30, 2006
Touchdown
3:38 PM EDT (19:38 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Osceola County
Touchdown point
28.120, -80.900
Lift-off point
28.120, -80.900
Record number
855

What the Weather Service recorded

County workers photographed an F0 tornado on the ground just north of Deer Park. No significant damage was noted.

County workers watched an F0 tornado touch down in a wooded area just southwest of Holopaw. No other damage was noted.

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

The warnings

10 minutes of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:28 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
03:00 UTC07:58 UTCFlood WatchMLB
19:28 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningMLB

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 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 surface observations

Melbourne Regional (MLB), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:53 UTC827730° 14 kt181007.5RA
18:53 UTC7774110° 5 kt1006.8+RA FG
19:53 UTC797790° 15 kt1005.1-RA BR
20:52 UTC7976110° 15 kt201003.4-RA BR

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

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 24 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:40 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:35 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD6 N Deer ParkOsceola, FLOSCEOLA COUNTY S.O. REPORTED THAT TWO FUNNEL CLOUDS WERE SIGHTED BY EMPLOYEES WORKING AT THE DESERET RANCH.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 30, 2006

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 3011:00 AM MSTF0Apache, AZ1.010
August 303:50 PM EDTF0Osceola, 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.