EF2 tornado, Wellington, Florida, August 18, 2008

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF2

Date

August 18, 2008

Touchdown

1:29 AM EDT (05:29 UTC)

Lifted

1:33 AM EDT (05:33 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.3 million

County

Palm Beach County

Touchdown point

26.624, -80.235

Lift-off point

26.649, -80.269

Record number

0808182329-01

Tropical Storm Fay affected South Florida on the 18th and 19th of August. The storm made landfall early in the morning of the 19th near Cape Romano, and moved over inland sections of South Florida during the morning and afternoon hours of the 19th, exiting the area near Lake Okeechobee. Fay caused tropical storm force winds, significant rainfall flooding in some areas, as well as two confirmed tornadoes.

Tornado moved through a number of Equine Farms and Polo Grounds as well as two subdivisions in Wellington. Worst damage was to Palm Beach Equine Clinic, 13125 Southfield Road, where roofs were blown off of stables, power poles snapped, and many trees down in criss-crossing patterns. The Equine Veterinary roof was more than 95 percent detiled, a heavy trailer was tossed about 40 yards from its previous location northwest of the International Polo Club, and an apartment home roof near Folkstone Circle was about 70 percent detiled. Maximum estimated wind speed was around 115 MPH. Most of the track was around 70 to 80 yards wide, but at the widest point the tornado was around 100 yards in width.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS MFL issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:02 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:44 UTC and running to 11:25 UTC.

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 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 00:49 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 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.

The Miami radar (KAMX), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:30 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

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

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

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.