Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2007

EF0 tornado, Ocean Ridge, Florida, April 10, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Palm Beach County on April 10, 2007, touching down at 5:30 PM EDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF0
Date
April 10, 2007
Touchdown
5:30 PM EDT (21:30 UTC)
Lifted
5:35 PM EDT (21:35 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Palm Beach County
Touchdown point
26.520, -80.080
Lift-off point
26.520, -80.070
Record number
0704101530-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A warm front near Lake Okeechobee along with a strong mid to upper level disturbance helped to cause severe thunderstorms over parts of southeast Florida on the afternoon and evening on April 10th.

Tornado touched down in Boynton Beach near Congress Avenue and Military Trail, causing damage to trailers and satellite dishes at the School Board's ITV building. The tornado moved east and flipped over a tractor trailer at the I-95 off ramp to Boynton Beach Boulevard before lifting.

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

The warnings

22 minutes of warning. NWS MFL issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:08 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:38 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:56 UTC20:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMFL
20:24 UTC21:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMFL
20:55 UTC21:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMFL
21:08 UTC21:38 UTCTornado WarningMFL
21:26 UTC22:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMFL

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:43 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.

Miami, FL (KMFL), 12:00Z

9.5 hours before the tornado, 81 km from the path. April 10, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-04-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 881 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 783 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, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-04-10The 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 47 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
881 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1153 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
783 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
47 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
77 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

2.5 hours after it, 81 km from the path. April 11, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-04-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 286 joules per kilogram, CIN -33, lifted condensation level 1510 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, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-04-11The 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 36 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
286 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-33 J/kg
Surface CAPE
366 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1510 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
36 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 107 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:31 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
20:25 UTCHAIL 0.75WellingtonPalm Beach, FLSPOTTER REPORTED PENNY SIZED HAIL AT 425 PM IN THE WELLINGTON AREA.
20:35 UTCHAIL 1.75WellingtonPalm Beach, FLSPOTTER IN HOLLY HOCK ROAD AREA OF WELLINGTON REPORTED GOLFBALL SIZED HAIL
21:17 UTCHAIL 1Boynton BeachPalm Beach, FLTRAINED SPOTTER PB41 REPORTED NICKEL TO QUARTER SIZED HAIL GATEWAY BLVD AND MILITARY TRAIL
21:22 UTCHAIL 0.88Boynton BeachPalm Beach, FLTRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED NICKLE TO GOLFBALL SIZED HAIL 1 MILE NORTH OF BOYNTON BEACH BLVD, JUST EAST OF FL TURNPIKE
21:22 UTCHAIL 1.755 Wnw Boynton BeachPalm Beach, FLTRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED NICKLE TO GOLFBALL SIZED HAIL 1 MILE NORTH OF BOYNTON BEACH BLVD, JUST EAST OF FL TURNPIKE
21:23 UTCHAIL 0.5LantanaPalm Beach, FLPALM BEACH SHERRIFS OFFICER REPORTED MARBLE SIZED HAIL AREA OF LANTANA ROAD AND HAVERHILL
21:23 UTCHAIL 0.88Boynton BeachPalm Beach, FLTRAINED SPOTTER REORTED NICKEL SIZED HAIL 1045 NW 10TH ST NEAR BOYNTON BEACH BLVD AND CONGRESS AVE
21:23 UTCHAIL 0.88LantanaPalm Beach, FLTRAINED SPOTTER PB7031 REPORTED 3/4 TO 1 INCH HAIL LANTANA/SR 441 AREA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

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.