Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2007

EF0 tornado, Marathon, Florida, June 24, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Monroe County on June 24, 2007, touching down at 1:58 PM EDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $3,000 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
June 24, 2007
Touchdown
1:58 PM EDT (17:58 UTC)
Lifted
2:00 PM EDT (18:00 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (0.9 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$3,000
County
Monroe County
Touchdown point
24.703, -81.087
Lift-off point
24.700, -81.096
Record number
0706241158-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A nonsupercell waterspout tracked from one mile north of the Marathon Airport toward the west-southwest, making landfall as a tornado shortly before 1300 EST on Palm Island, a private resort community. The tornado moved back over the water as a waterspout and made a second, final landfall onto private property near the west end of Vaca Key.

A large nonsupercell waterspout made landfall as a tornado on Palm Island, a private resort community. Trees were damaged, along with air conditioning units torn off a commercial structure, and outdoor furniture tossed throughout the resort and into the water. The tornado crossed back into the water, and made a second landfall just west of the Seven Mile Grille Restaurant on the Florida Bay side of Vaca Key. There, only medium sized tree limbs were damaged. Peak damage rating was confirmed as EF0. The tornado dissipated as a weakening swirl across US Highway 1.

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.

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 16:13 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.

Key West, FL (KEYW), 12:00Z

6.0 hours before the tornado, 65 km from the path. June 24, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Key West, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-06-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2784 joules per kilogram, CIN -10, lifted condensation level 912 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Key West, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-06-24The 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 12 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 knots.1939Sfc1 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
2784 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-10 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4487 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
912 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
12 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
61 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Key West, FL (KEYW), 00:00Z

6.0 hours after it, 65 km from the path. June 25, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Key West, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-06-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2620 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 1021 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Key West, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-06-25The 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 -12 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 8 knots.1939Sfc1 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
2620 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3957 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1021 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-12 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Key West radar (KBYX), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:59 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
17:20 UTCWATER SPOUTN MarathonMiddle Keys In Mon, FL3 WATERSPOUTS WERE REPORTED BY NUMEROUS SPOTTERS AND CITY OFFICIALS BETWEEN 120PM AND 200PM. THE WATERSPOUT WAS VERY LARGE AND LONG-LIVED...ABOUT 40 MINUTES OR SO...AND MOVED SLOWLY WEST FROM THE WEST END OF THE MARATHON
18:00 UTCHAIL 0.25MarathonMiddle Keys In Mon, FLA TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED A FEW PIECES OF SMALLER THAN PEA SIZED HAIL AT MARATHON AIRPORT.
18:05 UTCTSTM WND GST 40MarathonMiddle Keys In Mon, FLMARATHON ASOS REPORTED A PEAK WIND FROM THE SOUTH AT 35 KNOTS...OR 40 MPH...AT 205 PM.

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 24, 2007

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 248:53 PM CDTEF1Roseau, MN3.050
June 249:26 PM CDTEF0Roseau, MN0.225
June 249:59 PM CDTEF0Roseau, MN0.225
June 2410:35 PM CDTEF1Lake of the Woods, MN0.550

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.