Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2008
EF0 tornado, Lake Rosalie, Florida, August 22, 2008
This EF0 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Polk County on August 22, 2008, touching down at 6:25 PM EDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- August 22, 2008
- Touchdown
- 6:25 PM EDT (22:25 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:27 PM EDT (22:27 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.7 miles (1.2 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $30,000
- County
- Polk County
- Touchdown point
- 27.942, -81.416
- Lift-off point
- 27.953, -81.416
- Record number
- 0808221625-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Tropical Storm Fay produced only one recorded tornado in west central and southwest Florida.
The tornado formed over Lake Rosalie, moved onshore into Camp Rosalie, then dissipated. Five structures in the camp were damaged by the tornado. Car ports and mobile home roofs were peeled back in places.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
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 19:50 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.
Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 12:00Z
10.4 hours before the tornado, 101 km from the path. August 22, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1532 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -1 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 656 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 635 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 25 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 146 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 204 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.9
- Supercell composite
- 5.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.0 K/km
Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 00:00Z
1.6 hours after it, 101 km from the path. August 23, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1686 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- 0 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1483 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 736 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 11 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 58 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 79 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.5
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.4 K/km
The surface observations
Winter Haven (Asos) (GIF), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:34 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 230° 9 kt | 1009.5 | -RA BR | |
| 20:41 UTC | 78.8 | 77 | 220° 9 kt | 1009.8 | -RA BR | |
| 20:43 UTC | 78.8 | 77 | 220° 9 kt | 1009.8 | -RA BR | |
| 20:53 UTC | 79 | 77 | 210° 9 kt | 1009.8 | ||
| 21:22 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 260° 11 kt | 15 | 1010.5 | RA BR |
| 21:25 UTC | 77 | 75.2 | 260° 10 kt | 15 | 1010.2 | RA BR |
| 21:39 UTC | 78.8 | 77 | 210° 6 kt | 1010.2 | -RA | |
| 21:53 UTC | 79 | 77 | 220° 8 kt | 1009.8 | ||
| 22:29 UTC | 77 | 75.2 | 240° 8 kt | 14 | 1010.2 | +RA BR |
| 22:37 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 210° 9 kt | 1010.5 | RA BR | |
| 22:41 UTC | 77 | 77 | 200° 8 kt | 1010.5 | +RA BR | |
| 22:48 UTC | 77 | 77 | 200° 7 kt | 1010.5 | -RA BR | |
| 23:00 UTC | 78.8 | 77 | 150° 6 kt | 1010.5 | -RA BR | |
| 23:10 UTC | 77 | 75.2 | 150° 6 kt | 1010.5 | -RA | |
| 23:17 UTC | 77 | 75.2 | 160° 7 kt | 1010.5 | VCTS -RA | |
| 23:40 UTC | 77 | 77 | 170° 11 kt | 16 | 1010.2 | +RA BR |
| 23:44 UTC | 77 | 75.2 | 140° 8 kt | 16 | 1009.8 | +RA BR |
| 23:48 UTC | 77 | 75.2 | 160° 14 kt | 1009.8 | -RA BR | |
| 23:53 UTC | 77 | 77 | 200° 17 kt | 1010.5 | -RA BR | |
| 23:57 UTC | 75.2 | 75.2 | 200° 15 kt | 25 | 1010.5 | +RA BR |
| 00:02 UTC | 75.2 | 75.2 | 190° 10 kt | 25 | 1010.5 | RA BR |
| 00:07 UTC | 75.2 | 75.2 | 200° 6 kt | 1010.5 | +RA BR | |
| 00:11 UTC | 75.2 | 75.2 | 160° 9 kt | 1010.5 | -RA BR |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:26 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:25 UTC | TORNADO | 9 Wnw Lake Kissimmee | Polk, FL | TORNADO REPORTED IN TRAILER PARK NEAR LAKE ROSALIE ON CAMP MACK ROAD. POWER LINES DOWN. ROOFS DAMAGED. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
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 22, 2008
4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.