Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2006

F1 tornado, Oviedo, Florida, November 7, 2006

This F1 tornado ran 2.3 miles across Seminole County on November 7, 2006, touching down at 6:10 PM EST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1.4 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
November 7, 2006
Touchdown
6:10 PM EST (23:10 UTC)
Path length
2.3 miles (3.7 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$1.4 million
County
Seminole County
Touchdown point
28.620, -81.250
Lift-off point
28.650, -81.230
Record number
1021

What the Weather Service recorded

A small-scale area of low pressure, referred to as a mesolow, formed over the Gulf of Mexico along a cold front which was moving into central Florida. The center of this feature was accompanied by a small band of showers and lightning storms as it moved onshore near the mouth of Tampa Bay. These storms moved rapidly northeast at 35 to 40 mph crossing the Kissimmee River into northwestern Osceola County. With the mesolow increasing, significant rotation was noted on doppler radar as the storms moved through northwestern Orange County and then into Seminole County.

An F1 tornado touched down in southern Seminole County just north of Aloma Avenue and moved northeast, crossing the 417 Beltway and lifting along West Chapman Road. The tornado severly damaged four homes. Eight homes had moderate damage and 32 homes and mobile homes had minor damage.

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

The warnings

1 minute of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:09 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:09 UTC00:00 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 19:38 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

11.2 hours before the tornado, 75 km from the path. November 7, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2006-11-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 52 joules per kilogram, CIN -103, lifted condensation level 982 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, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2006-11-07The 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 43 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 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
52 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-103 J/kg
Surface CAPE
264 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
982 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
43 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
79 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.8 hours after it, 75 km from the path. November 8, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2006-11-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1036 joules per kilogram, CIN -10, lifted condensation level 856 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, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2006-11-08The 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 224 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
1036 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-10 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1301 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
856 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
224 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
253 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.7
Supercell composite
9.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Orlando/Herndon (ORL), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:41 UTC71.66880° 4 kt1007.8+RA BR
21:53 UTC726980° 6 kt1007.5+RA BR
22:16 UTC71.669.880° 9 kt1006.8+RA BR
22:29 UTC71.669.880° 15 kt1006.4+RA BR
22:36 UTC71.669.8100° 9 kt1005.8+RA BR
22:53 UTC7270110° 18 kt1004.7+RA BR
23:04 UTC71.669.8280° 18 kt281006.4RA BR
23:18 UTC71.669.8280° 7 kt1007.1-RA
23:33 UTC73.469.80° 0 kt1007.1-RA
23:53 UTC7270220° 8 kt1007.5
00:01 UTC71.669.8200° 7 kt1007.5
00:53 UTC7168210° 7 kt1007.5

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

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:12 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
23:00 UTCTORNADOOrlandoOrange, FLREPORT FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9 OF TWO BUILDINGS DAMAGED IN APARTMENT COMPLEX NEAR SEMORAN BLVD/436 AND EAST COLONIAL/SR 50.
23:00 UTCTORNADOWinter ParkOrange, FLUPDATE... AN F0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN THREE LOCATIONS NEAR HIGHWAY 436. MOVING EAST, THE TORNADO DAMAGED ROOFS ON HOMES AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS, BROKE OUT WINDOWS, AND UPROOTED TREES. A LARGE TRUCK WAS OVERTURNED. A TO
23:10 UTCTORNADO4 Sw OviedoSeminole, FL*** 3 INJ *** F1 TORNADO BEGINNING JUST WEST OF REGAL LANE AND EXTENDING NORTHEAST ACROSS THE WEST END OF ROBIN LEE ROAD AND RUSTIC PINE TRAIL...CROSSING THE 417 AND CAMP ROAD BEFORE ENDING NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF MIKLE
23:10 UTCTORNADOGoldenrodSeminole, FLREPORT FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9 OF CARS BLOWN AROUND NEAR 417 AND ALOMA AVE.
23:20 UTCTORNADOOviedoSeminole, FL*** 2 INJ *** FLORIDA STATE WARNING POINT RELAYED REPORT FROM SEMINOLE COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGER OF STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO FIVE HOMES IN THE ALOMA WOODS NEIGHBORHOOD IN OVIEDO. A COMMAND POST HAS BEEN SET UP ON THE SCENE, S
23:25 UTCTORNADOOviedoSeminole, FLNEWS CHANNEL 13 REPORTED STRONG WINDS AND BLOWN TRANSFORMERS AT RED BUG LAKE RD. AND 417 IN OVIEDO.
23:30 UTCTORNADOOviedoSeminole, FLPUBLIC REPORT OF DEBRIS IN THE AIR AND LOUD ROAR OF WIND NEAR ALAFAYA TRAIL AND MITCHELL HAMMOCK IN OVIEDO.
23:31 UTCTORNADO2 W OviedoSeminole, FLSEMINOLE COUNTY FIRE DISPATCH REPORTED SEVERAL ROOFS DAMAGED / REMOVED NEAR 417/426. DAMAGE APPEARS TO BE ALONG A TRACK, POSSIBLY FROM A TORNADO.
23:55 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 S EdgewaterVolusia, FLFLAGLER COUNTY EM RELAYED REPORT FROM CITIZEN IN VOLUSIA COUNTY OF A FUNNEL CLOUD SIGHTING 2 MILES SOUTH OF EDGEWATER.

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 November 7, 2006

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 75:55 PM ESTF0Orange, FL0.850$40,000

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.