Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2007

EF1 tornado, Franjo to Palmetto Estates, Florida, June 1, 2007

From Franjo to Palmetto Estates, this EF1 tornado ran 3.9 miles across Miami-Dade County on June 1, 2007, touching down at 9:45 PM EDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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 mph

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
June 1, 2007
Touchdown
9:45 PM EDT (01:45 UTC)
Lifted
9:58 PM EDT (01:58 UTC)
On the ground
13 minutes
Path length
3.9 miles (6.3 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Miami-Dade County
Touchdown point
25.570, -80.350
Lift-off point
25.620, -80.380
Record number
0706011945-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Tropical Storm Barry formed in the extreme southeast Gulf of Mexico on June 1st and moved northeast across Central Florida during the day on June 2nd. Effects on South Florida were relatively minor, except for a tornado which struck Cutler Bay in Miami-Dade County.

EF1 tornado moved northwest through sections of the town of Cutler Bay in southern Miami-Dade County. Highest rating of EF1 with maximum winds of 85-90 mph based on roof damage to home on 20800 block of Coral Sea Drive. Rest of damage in EF0 range and primarily to vegetation. A few large trees were uprooted and several large limbs broken off, along with fence damage to homes.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
03:07 UTC04:00 UTCTornado WarningMFL
03:32 UTC12:00 UTCTornado WatchMFL

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 01:26 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), 00:00Z

1.8 hours before the tornado, 26 km from the path. June 2, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 224 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 531 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 2007-06-02The 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 182 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
224 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
387 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
531 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
182 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
357 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
2.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 12:00Z

10.2 hours after it, 26 km from the path. June 2, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1048 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 633 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 2007-06-02The 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 167 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
1048 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1494 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
633 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
167 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
290 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
4.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 5 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:45 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
01:50 UTCTORNADOCutler RidgeMiami-Dade, FLLAW ENFORECEMENT RELAYED A REPORT OF A POSSIBLE TORNADO IN CLUTER RIDGE ALONG GULF STREAM ROAD. THERE WAS ALSO REPORTS OF POWER OUTAGES IN THIS 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

The other tornadoes of June 1, 2007

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 112:55 PM EDTEF0Monroe, FL0.630$20,000
June 112:07 PM CDTEF3Louisa, IA15.87747$16 million
June 112:44 PM CDTEF1Cedar, IA1.175
June 12:28 PM CDTEF2Jackson, IA to IL3.4350$3.3 million
June 13:15 PM CDTEF0Jo Daviess, IL0.510
June 13:17 PM CDTEF0Lafayette, WI0.120
June 13:31 PM CDTEF0Lafayette, WI0.230
June 16:30 PM CDTEF0Hamilton, IA0.130
June 17:25 PM CDTEF0Gaines, TX2.550

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.