Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2008

EF0 tornado, Perrine Arpt, Florida, August 31, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 1.9 miles across Miami-Dade County on August 31, 2008, touching down at 8:00 AM EDT and reaching 1 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
August 31, 2008
Touchdown
8:00 AM EDT (12:00 UTC)
Lifted
8:01 AM EDT (12:01 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
1.9 miles (3.0 km)
Path width
1 yards (1 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Miami-Dade County
Touchdown point
25.779, -80.820
Lift-off point
25.800, -80.840
Record number
0808310600-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An outer spiral band associated with Hurricane Gustav produced a tornado which was sighted by motorist driving on Highway 41 in the Everglades.

A severe thunderstorm developed in the Everglades near Tamiami Trail. A motorist driving along the highway observed a tornado near 40 mile bend.

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

The warnings

5 minutes of warning. NWS MFL issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:55 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:25 UTC22:45 UTCTornado WarningMFL
11:55 UTC13:00 UTCTornado WarningMFL

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 06:00 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.

Miami, FL (KMFL), 12:00Z

0.0 hours before the tornado, 54 km from the path. August 31, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2008-08-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3090 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 594 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, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2008-08-31The 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 102 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
3090 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2328 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
594 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
102 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
121 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

12.0 hours after it, 54 km from the path. September 1, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2008-09-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1520 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 890 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, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2008-09-01The 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 4 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 15 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
1520 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2691 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
890 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
4 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
30 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Miami/Kendall-Tamia (TMB), 43 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
10:53 UTC8378120° 16 kt231008.1
11:02 UTC82.478.8110° 16 kt241008.5
11:53 UTC8379110° 16 kt211009.1
12:00 UTC82.478.8120° 13 kt211009.5VCTS RA BR
12:26 UTC82.478.8120° 13 kt181009.8
12:53 UTC8379120° 14 kt1009.8-RA
13:02 UTC82.478.8110° 14 kt1010.2VCTS -RA
13:18 UTC82.480.6130° 8 kt191010.2TSRA BR
13:25 UTC80.678.8170° 9 kt1010.2TSRA BR
13:35 UTC80.678.8 6 kt1010.2-TSRA BR
13:53 UTC7876210° 11 kt201011.2+TSRA FG

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:58 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
12:00 UTCTORNADO29 W SweetwaterMiami-Dade, FLPUBLIC DRIVING WEST OF U.S. 41 REPORTED OBSERVING A TORNADO NEAR 40 MILE BEND.

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

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.