Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2007

EF0 tornado, Dundee, Florida, April 15, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Polk County on April 15, 2007, touching down at 12:00 PM EDT and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $250,000 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 15, 2007
Touchdown
12:00 PM EDT (16:00 UTC)
Lifted
12:03 PM EDT (16:03 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
300 yards (274 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$250,000
County
Polk County
Touchdown point
28.009, -81.650
Lift-off point
28.020, -81.620
Record number
0704151000-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong cold front moved southeast across the area and produced a narrow but solid line of showers and thunderstorms as it passed.

Damage photographs and eyewitness accounts from a police officer have determined that a tornado with 80 MPH winds caused damage near Dundee. The track began near the Cypresswood Golf and Country Club then tracked east-northeast across Highway 27 into Dundee where it caused moderate damage to manufactured homes in Dell Lake Village before lifting. Severe of the manufactured homes were uninhabitable due to roof damage. Nine other manufactured homes received damage to awnings, car ports, and parts of the roof.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:52 UTC and running to 16:42 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
13:52 UTC16:42 UTCTornado WatchTBW
14:45 UTC15:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTBW
16:00 UTC01:00 UTCWind AdvisoryTBW

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 12:32 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

4.0 hours before the tornado, 83 km from the path. April 15, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-04-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1470 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 579 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 2007-04-15The 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 331 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 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
1470 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1845 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
579 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
331 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
310 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.9
Supercell composite
12.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

8.0 hours after it, 83 km from the path. April 16, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-04-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -91942, lifted condensation level 1323 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2007-04-16The 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 72 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 70 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-91942 J/kg
Surface CAPE
11 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1323 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
70 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
72 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
24 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
1.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
14:32 UTCTSTM WND GST 54Ese Lakeland HighlandsPolk, FLMEASURED AT 50 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL. SENSOR BLEW DOWN AFTER THIS GUST WAS RECORDED BUT NO FURTHER DAMAGE REPORTED.
14:32 UTCTSTM WND GST 55Lakeland HighlandsPolk, FLMEASURED AT 30 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL. RECORDED GUST OF 55 MPH BEFORE EQUIPMENT COLLAPSED. PERSON HAD ENHANCED STEEL STRUCTURE WITH GUY WIRES PRIOR TO THE EVENT. WIND MAY HAVE BEEN 60 MPH TO CAUSE EQUIPMENT TO BREAK. NO
15:00 UTCTORNADODundeePolk, FLUPDATED POLICE CHIEF REPORTED PRELIMARY DAMAGE TO AWNINGS...CARPORTS...ROOF PORTIONS TO 15 MOBILE HOMES. SOME POWER LINES WERE ALSO DOWN. TIME ALSO ADJUSTED TO AROUND 1100 AM BASED ON THIS REPORT AND RADAR DATA.
15:10 UTCTORNADODundeePolk, FLPOLICE REPORTED TOUCHDOWN WITH SOME POWER LINES DOWN AND SOME DAMAGE TO MOBILE HOMES AT A NEARBY PARK. AMATEUR RADIO ALSO REPORTED A FUNNEL CLOUD IN THE VICINITY AT AROUND THE SAME TIME.

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

The other tornadoes of April 15, 2007

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 152:04 AM EDTEF1Treutlen, GA14.9440$705,000
April 152:05 AM EDTEF1Laurens, GA19.0100$325,000
April 152:56 AM EDTEF2Emanuel, GA5.4200$250,000
April 153:23 AM EDTEF1Worth, GA6.7200$30,000
April 153:27 AM EDTEF1Crisp, GA7.9200$80,000
April 154:25 AM EDTEF2Dodge, GA3.6200$500,000
April 157:15 AM EDTEF2Baker, FL1.5300
April 157:47 AM EDTEF0Bamberg, SC7.650$1,000
April 158:11 AM EDTEF0Bamberg, SC4.250
April 158:20 AM EDTEF3Sumter, SC19.030015
April 158:50 AM EDTEF1Lee, SC3.6200$5,000
April 159:37 AM EDTEF0Orangeburg, SC6.250$1,000
April 159:38 AM EDTEF1Colleton, SC1.060$100,000
April 159:41 AM EDTEF1Colleton, SC0.530$10,000
April 159:44 AM EDTEF1Colleton, SC2.0809$200,000
April 1510:10 AM EDTEF1Saint Johns, FL0.250

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.