Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2006

F2 tornado, De Land, Florida, December 25, 2006

This F2 tornado ran 2.8 miles across Volusia County on December 25, 2006, touching down at 1:22 PM EST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 5, and did $2.5 million 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 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
December 25, 2006
Touchdown
1:22 PM EST (18:22 UTC)
Path length
2.8 miles (4.5 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
5
Property damage
$2.5 million
County
Volusia County
Touchdown point
29.030, -81.300
Lift-off point
29.070, -81.280
Record number
1073

What the Weather Service recorded

On December 24th an area of surface low pressure developed in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of a strong upper level trough and an associated powerful branch of the subtropical jet. As this low pressure system moved into Florida, a squall line developed over the eastern Gulf of Mexico and then moved rapidly into Florida . The squall line spawned severe thunderstorms and tornadoes moving east and northeast at around 50 MPH.

An F2 tornado touched down just west of North Stone Street in Deland and moved northeast crossing Highway 17. It moved across the Fernwood mobile home community and continued northeast over Meadowlea Estates mobile home community. It lifted just north of Carter Road. Fifty two residences were destroyed and 162 were damaged. Five people were seriously injured.

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

The warnings

43 minutes of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:39 UTC, 43 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:10 UTC and running to 22:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:10 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WatchMLB
17:39 UTC18:30 UTCTornado WarningMLB
18:24 UTC19:15 UTCTornado WarningMLB
19:09 UTC20:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:24 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.

Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), 12:00Z

6.4 hours before the tornado, 100 km from the path. December 25, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2006-12-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1340 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 497 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2006-12-25The 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 113 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1340 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1697 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
497 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
113 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
152 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
6.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 121 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:20 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
17:20 UTCTORNADO2 E LeesburgLake, FLNWS STORM SURVEY TEAM CONFIRMS F0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN BRITTANY ESTATES 2 MILES EAST OF LEESBURG. WINDS WERE ESTIMATED AT 70 MPH.
18:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 W De LandVolusia, FLSKYWARN REPORT OF TREE DAMAGE AND ESTIMATED WIND GUST OF 50 TO 60 MPH.
18:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGDe LandVolusia, FLSEVERAL LARGE PINE TREES DOWN ESTIMATED 60 FEET TALL WITH 24 INCH BASES. DAMAGE TO SEVERAL MOBILE HOMES WITH DAMAGED CAR PORTS. REPORT FROM KD4LOL.
18:30 UTCTORNADO3 N De LandVolusia, FL*** 7 INJ *** INTIAL STORM SURVEY TEAM REPORTS F2 TORNADO STRUCK NORTH SIDE OF DELAND NEAR HIGHWAY 17 AND 11 INTERSECTION YESTERDAY. WIND ESTIMATES ARE IN THE 120 TO 150 MPH RANGE. DAMAGE IS SEVERE IN SOME PLACES WITH TO
18:30 UTCTORNADODe LandVolusia, FL*** 1 INJ *** SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO ROSEWOOD FERNWOOD MOBILE HOME PARK 1 SERIOUS INJURY
18:35 UTCTSTM WND DMGDe LandVolusia, FLPOSSIBLE TORNADO. PRELIMINARY REPORT OF DAMAGE AT STATE ROAD 17/92 AND HWY 11.
18:41 UTCTSTM WND DMGDaytona BeachVolusia, FLPRELIMINARY REPORT OF OVER-TURNED SMALL AIRCRAFT AT EMBRY RIDDLE COLLEGE NEAR NOVA ROAD.
18:41 UTCTORNADODaytona BeachVolusia, FLNWS MELBOURNE SURVEY TEAM INDICATE AN F2 TORNADO AROUND 120 MPH IN THE EMBRY/RIDDLE AREA.
18:45 UTCTSTM WND GST 0Daytona BeachVolusia, FLLARGE TREES DOWN NEAR DAYTONA BEACH POLICE STATION NEAR NOVA AND RANGE ROADS. TREES 24 INCH IN DIAMETER. REPORT FROM KD4LOL.
18:45 UTCTORNADODaytona BeachVolusia, FL*** 6 INJ *** UPDATE...F2 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN JUST WEST OF FLIGHT LINE AT EMBRY RIDDLE UNIVERSITY AND CONTINUED NORTHEAST ON GROUND FOR 2.7 MILES CROSSING NOVA ROAD AT SUTTON PLACE APARTMENTS AND ENDING AT BEACH STREET
18:55 UTCTORNADODaytona BeachVolusia, FLNWS MELBOURNE SURVEY TEAM INDICATE AN F2 AROUND 120 MPH AT THE SUTTON APARTMENTS.

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 December 25, 2006

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 256:30 AM ESTF1Ben Hill, GA11.3100$300,000
December 258:06 AM ESTF2Columbia, FL2.73001
December 2511:20 AM ESTF2Pasco, FL0.81002$3.5 million
December 2512:20 PM ESTF0Lake, FL0.350$250,000
December 251:40 PM ESTF2Volusia, FL2.7806$50 million

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.