Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2008

EF0 tornado, Live Oak Suwane Arpt, Florida, April 28, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Suwannee County on April 28, 2008, touching down at 2:25 PM EDT and reaching 50 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
April 28, 2008
Touchdown
2:25 PM EDT (18:25 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Suwannee County
Touchdown point
30.327, -83.031
Lift-off point
30.327, -83.031
Record number
0804281225-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front approached the region touching off some isolated severe weather along a pre-frontal squall line.

Homes were damaged on 68th Street in live Oak. A mobile home had portions of a roof removed.

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

The warnings

7 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:18 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:18 UTC18:45 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 17:15 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.

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 12:00Z

6.4 hours before the tornado, 122 km from the path. April 28, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2008-04-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 4 joules per kilogram, CIN -98, lifted condensation level 1085 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2008-04-28The 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 130 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 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
4 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-98 J/kg
Surface CAPE
618 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1085 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
130 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
149 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 00:00Z

5.6 hours after it, 122 km from the path. April 29, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2008-04-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3 joules per kilogram, CIN -226, lifted condensation level 1290 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2008-04-29The 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 16 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 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
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-226 J/kg
Surface CAPE
63 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1290 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
16 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
50 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 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
18:25 UTCTORNADO 05 Wnw Live OakSuwannee, FLHOMES DAMAGED ON 68TH STREET AND 161ST ROAD. ENTIRE ROOF TAKEN OFF A MOBILE HOME. BARBEQUE GRILL AND FENCE POSTS TOSSED ABOUT 300 YARDS. ONE TREE UPROOTED. THIS IS AN UPDATE OF THE PREVIOUS STORM REPORT SENT AT 246 PM ON
18:34 UTCTORNADOLive OakSuwannee, FLHOMES DAMAGED ON 68TH ST. IN LIVE OAK BY POSSIBLE TORNADO.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 28, 2008

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 289:30 AM EDTEF0Cleveland, NC0.140$20,000
April 281:06 PM EDTEF0Taylor, FL0.330$75,000
April 281:10 PM EDTEF1Halifax, VA0.9240$500,000
April 282:48 PM EDTEF1Brunswick, VA16.0250$705,000
April 283:40 PM EDTEF1City of Colonial Heights, VA1.08021$2.0 million
April 283:50 PM EDTEF1Greensville, VA2.050$15,000
April 284:05 PM EDTEF3City of Suffolk, VA24.0400200$30 million
April 284:10 PM EDTEF0Southampton, VA0.330$5,000
April 284:18 PM EDTEF1Surry, VA0.330$74,000
April 284:35 PM EDTEF0James City, VA0.550$200,000
April 284:40 PM EDTEF1Isle of Wight, VA3.050$184,000
April 284:45 PM EDTEF1Mathews, VA0.350$50,000
April 284:55 PM EDTEF0Gloucester, VA11.050$20,000
April 285:25 PM EDTEF0Beaufort, NC0.220
April 285:40 PM EDTEF0Hyde, NC0.120

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.