Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2006

F0 tornado, Bartow, Florida, June 12, 2006

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Polk County on June 12, 2006, touching down at 8:09 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
June 12, 2006
Touchdown
8:09 AM EDT (12:09 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Polk County
Touchdown point
27.950, -81.770
Lift-off point
27.950, -81.770
Record number
618

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado was reported two miles east of the Polk County Emergency Operations Center at the Bartow Municipal Airport.

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

The warnings

24 minutes of warning. NWS TBW issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:45 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 12:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:00 UTC21:00 UTCFlood WatchTBW
21:24 UTC09:30 UTCInland Tropical Storm WatchTBW
09:30 UTC15:10 UTCInland Tropical Storm WarningTBW
11:45 UTC12:15 UTCTornado WarningTBW
14:05 UTC21:00 UTCTornado WatchTBW
21:08 UTC01:54 UTCTornado WatchTBW
01:54 UTC12:00 UTCTornado WatchTBW

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 06:04 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), 12:00Z

0.2 hours before the tornado, 68 km from the path. June 12, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2006-06-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 455 joules per kilogram, CIN -26, lifted condensation level 677 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 12:00Z on 2006-06-12The 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 165 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
455 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-26 J/kg
Surface CAPE
734 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
677 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
165 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
302 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
3.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.8 hours after it, 68 km from the path. June 13, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2006-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 574 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 737 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 2006-06-13The 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 259 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
574 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1462 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
737 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
259 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
434 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
7.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Bartow (BOW), 2 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
11:50 UTC73.473.4250° 5 kt1015.2+RA BR
12:50 UTC73.473.430° 5 kt1015.2RA BR

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

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 68 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:08 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
10:50 UTCTORNADO3 Ne WauchulaHardee, FLCOUNTY ROAD CREW OBSERVED THE TORNADO NEAR HIGHWAY 62.
12:09 UTCTORNADO1 E BartowPolk, FLTORNADO OBSERVED 1 MILE EAST OF THE BARTOW AIRPORT.

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 June 12, 2006

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 128:50 AM EDTF0Hardee, FL0.540
June 122:28 PM EDTF0DeSoto, FL0.540
June 123:18 PM EDTF0DeSoto, FL4.040

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.