Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2007

EF0 tornado, Bunnell Flagler Arpt, Florida, March 16, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Flagler County on March 16, 2007, touching down at 10:45 AM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
March 16, 2007
Touchdown
10:45 AM EDT (14:45 UTC)
Lifted
10:48 AM EDT (14:48 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Flagler County
Touchdown point
29.470, -81.210
Lift-off point
29.470, -81.210
Record number
0703160845-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front moving across north Florida with a narrow band of showers and thunderstorms spawned a tornado in the vicinity of Bunnell, Florida.

A pilot traveling west on state road 100 from Interstate 95 to the Flagler county airport observed a narrow tornado touchdown along State Road 100 about 500 yards west of Interstate 95. The tornado was moving north and crossed State Road 100 damaging road signs and ripping apart palms. The vortex was observed on the ground for about 100 yards. Total time observed on the ground was around three minutes.

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

The warnings

9 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 14:36 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 15:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
14:36 UTC15:00 UTCTornado WarningJAX

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 12:43 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.

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 12:00Z

2.8 hours before the tornado, 124 km from the path. March 16, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-03-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 505 joules per kilogram, CIN -27, lifted condensation level 498 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, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-03-16The 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 182 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 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
505 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-27 J/kg
Surface CAPE
717 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
498 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
182 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
156 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
2.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z

9.2 hours after it, 124 km from the path. March 17, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-03-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 154 joules per kilogram, CIN -39, lifted condensation level 1086 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, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-03-17The 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 -56 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
154 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-39 J/kg
Surface CAPE
303 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1086 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-56 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
27 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Ormond Beach Municipal (OMN), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
12:45 UTC66.266.20° 0 kt1011.9
13:50 UTC6868116° 6 kt1010.8-RA
14:50 UTC6868180° 7 kt1010.5
15:50 UTC71.671.6220° 10 kt1009.8

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

The radar

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 122 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:45 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
14:45 UTCTORNADO 03 E BunnellFlagler, FLA PILOT TRAVELING WEST ON STATE ROAD 100 FROM INTERSTATE 95 TO THE FLAGLER COUNTY AIRPORT OBSERVED A NARROW TORNADO TOUCHDOWN ALONG SR 100 ABOUT 500 YARDS WEST OF I-95. THE TORNADO WAS MOVING NORTH AND CROSSED SR 100 AND
14:55 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 W BunnellFlagler, FLTREE DOWN ON A POWERLINE ALONG STATE ROAD 100 NEAR BUNNELL.

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.