Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2008

EF1 tornado, Micco, Florida, August 19, 2008

This EF1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Brevard County on August 19, 2008, touching down at 1:45 PM EDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2, and did $420,000 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 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
August 19, 2008
Touchdown
1:45 PM EDT (17:45 UTC)
Lifted
1:50 PM EDT (17:50 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
2
Property damage
$420,000
County
Brevard County
Touchdown point
27.881, -80.513
Lift-off point
27.884, -80.517
Record number
0808191145-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Rain bands from Tropical Storm Fay moving onshore from the Atlantic produced a tornado in southern Brevard County.

An EF1 tornado embedded in a rain band from Tropical Storm Fay moved onshore and struck the manufactured home community of Barefoot Bay. The tornado destroyed 9 mobile homes and damaged 59. The tornado blew the roof off and collapsed the exterior walls of the most severely damaged mobile home. Dozens of lightweight out buildings, awnings and car ports were damaged. Two minor injuries were reported.

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

The warnings

17 minutes of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:28 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 11:05 UTC and running to 19:46 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
02:45 UTC11:05 UTCTornado WatchMLB
11:05 UTC19:46 UTCTornado WatchMLB
17:28 UTC18:00 UTCTornado WarningMLB
18:30 UTC22:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningMLB
19:46 UTC05:00 UTCTornado WatchMLB
20:29 UTC21:00 UTCTornado WarningMLB
22:13 UTC01:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningMLB
00:57 UTC03:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningMLB
03:28 UTC10:00 UTCFlood WarningMLB

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:18 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), 12:00Z

5.8 hours before the tornado, 65 km from the path. August 19, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2008-08-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 272 joules per kilogram, CIN -10, lifted condensation level 943 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 2008-08-19The 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 -17 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 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
272 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-10 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2275 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
943 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-17 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
50 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

6.2 hours after it, 65 km from the path. August 20, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2008-08-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 406 joules per kilogram, CIN -64, lifted condensation level 814 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 00:00Z on 2008-08-20The 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 -75 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 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
406 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-64 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1204 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
814 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-75 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-82 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 29 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:42 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
16:35 UTCTORNADO4 Sw Fort Pierce SouthSt. Lucie, FLTORNADO ALONG 3900 SELVITZ ROAD. NO DAMAGE REPORTED.
17:45 UTCTORNADOBarefoot BayBrevard, FLTORNADO REPORTED. DAMAGE TO MANUFACTURED HOUSING, INCLUDING ROOF DAMAGE TO AT LEAST 3 STRUCTURES. NO INJURIES REPORTED.
17:45 UTCTORNADONne Barefoot BayBrevard, FL*** 3 INJ *** UPDATED INFO 3 - 4 UNITS WITH DAMAGE TO AWINGS, CARPORTS AND PORCHES

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 August 19, 2008

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 1910:11 AM EDTEF0Martin, FL0.030$20,000
August 1912:35 PM EDTEF0Saint Lucie, FL0.130$10,000

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.