Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2007

EF1 tornado, Eustis, Florida, September 20, 2007

This EF1 tornado ran 1.8 miles across Lake County on September 20, 2007, touching down at 10:57 PM EDT and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $6.2 million 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
September 20, 2007
Touchdown
10:57 PM EDT (02:57 UTC)
Lifted
11:05 PM EDT (03:05 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
1.8 miles (2.9 km)
Path width
300 yards (274 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$6.2 million
County
Lake County
Touchdown point
28.837, -81.676
Lift-off point
28.863, -81.685
Record number
0709202057-01

What the Weather Service recorded

As Tropical Depression number 10 began to slowly organize in the Gulf of Mexico, low level rotation allowed numerous strong mesocyclones to track north over western Orange and northern Lake counties.

A tornado touched down in the Town of Eustis at the northern end of West Crooked Lake. The tornado quickly intensified to EF1 strength as it moved north northwest through Eustis. The track was just under two miles long and had a maximum width of 300 yards. The tornado destroyed 7 homes. Twenty seven homes received major damage and 81 homes reported minor damage. There were no serious injuries and property damage was set at $6.2 million.

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

The warnings

24 minutes of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:33 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:22 UTC01:45 UTCTornado WarningMLB
02:33 UTC03:15 UTCTornado WarningMLB
03:09 UTC04:15 UTCTornado WarningMLB
03:20 UTC05:39 UTCTornado WatchMLB

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 01:01 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.

Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), 00:00Z

3.0 hours before the tornado, 123 km from the path. September 21, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-09-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2928 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 705 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-09-21The 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 30 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 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
2928 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4669 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
705 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
30 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
2.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), 12:00Z

9.0 hours after it, 123 km from the path. September 21, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-09-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1276 joules per kilogram, CIN -29, lifted condensation level 952 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, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2007-09-21The 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 6 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 5 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
1276 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-29 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2704 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
952 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
2 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
21 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 129 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:55 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
00:49 UTCTSTM WND DMGOcalaMarion, FLLARGE TREE FELL ON POWERLINES NEAR COUNTY ROAD 475 AND SE 20TH STREET.
01:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Nnw BelleviewMarion, FLPOWERLINES AND LARGE POLE DOWN SE 91ST PLACE. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR.
01:41 UTCTORNADOW LeesburgLake, FLSHERIFFS OFFICE RECEIVED UNCONFIRMED REPORT OF A TORNADO AT INTERSECTION OF HWY 27 AND HWY 44. NO DAMAGE OR INJURIES HAVE BEEN REPORTED.
01:50 UTCHEAVY RAIN 0WeirsdaleMarion, FLMINOR STREET FLOODING AT COUNTY ROAD 25 AND HIGHWAY 42. 4 TO 8 INCHES STANDING WATER ON SOME ROADS.
02:11 UTCTSTM WND DMGSummerfieldMarion, FLTREES AND POWERLINES DOWN ALONG 47TH AVENUE.
02:27 UTCTSTM WND GST 55Silver Springs ShoresMarion, FL
02:27 UTCHAIL 0.75Silver Springs ShoresMarion, FL
02:59 UTCTORNADOEustisLake, FLTORNADO DAMAGE REPORTED IN EUSTIS BY SHERIFFS OFFICE.
03:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 S OcalaMarion, FLTREES DOWN CAUSING POWER OUTAGES SOUTH OF OCALA.
05:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG10 E OcalaMarion, FLTREES DOWN OVER EASTERN SECTIONS OF OCALA.
05:08 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ne Silver Springs ShoMarion, FLLARGE AMOUNT OF TREES DOWN AND DEBRIS.

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 September 20, 2007

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 206:30 PM CDTEF0Washington, MN0.450$500,000
September 2012:20 AM EDTEF1Lafayette, FL0.335$2,000

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.