Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2008

EF0 tornado, Cocoa Beach, Florida, February 12, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Brevard County on February 12, 2008, touching down at 2:45 PM EST and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $200,000 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 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
February 12, 2008
Touchdown
2:45 PM EST (19:45 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$200,000
County
Brevard County
Touchdown point
28.347, -80.608
Lift-off point
28.347, -80.608
Record number
0802121345-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A pre-frontal upper level storm system produced wide-spread rain and thunderstorms across central and south Florida.

A north moving thunderstorm produced a short lived EF0 rated tornado. It touched down in Cocoa Beach taking the roof off a beach side condominium. Sixteen apartments were uninhabitable. The large piece of the condominium roof damaged the adjacent condominium and 4 vehicles. There were no injuries.

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

The warnings

21 minutes of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:24 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:24 UTC20:00 UTCTornado WarningMLB
19:58 UTC20:30 UTCTornado WarningMLB
20:20 UTC03:22 UTCTornado WatchMLB
03:22 UTC08:46 UTCTornado WatchMLB

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 16:30 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

7.8 hours before the tornado, 17 km from the path. February 12, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2008-02-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 17 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 1022 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, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2008-02-12The 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 -32 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
17 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
49 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1022 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-32 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
18 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.2 hours after it, 17 km from the path. February 13, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2008-02-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 264 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 765 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 2008-02-13The 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 133 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 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
264 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
355 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
765 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
133 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
136 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
2.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:43 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
19:37 UTCHAIL 0.883 N Cocoa BeachBrevard, FLCOCOA BEACH PD IN FIELD REPORTS SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNTS OF HAIL
19:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGCocoa BeachBrevard, FLPOSSILBE TORNADO AT 3100 NORTH A1A AT DIPLOMAT CONDOS. ROOF COLLAPSE. REPORT FROM BREVARD FIRE RESCUE.
19:45 UTCTORNADOCocoa BeachBrevard, FLCREWS DETERMINED OCCURRENCE OF EF0 -ZERO- AT DIPLOMAT CONDOS IN COCOA BEACH ON FEB 12TH. DEBRIS FROM THE DIPLOMAT DAMAGED ADJACENT WIND RUSH CONDOS. ESTIMATED WINDS 70 TO 80 MPH. LOCATION 3100 NORTH HWY A1A IN COCOA BEAC
20:05 UTCTORNADOCape CanaveralBrevard, FLCAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION KXMR REPORTED SIGHTING FUNNEL CLOUD WHICH TOUCHED DOWN NEAR THE SKID STRIP AND MOVED NORTH TOWARDS KENNEDY SPACE CENTER.
20:06 UTCTSTM WND GST 55Cape CanaveralBrevard, FLCAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION REPORTED PEAK WIND GUST OF 48 KNOTS / 55 MPH AT 1506 EST FROM 230 DEGREES.

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 February 12, 2008

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 1211:37 AM CSTEF0Harrison, MS0.120
February 1212:40 PM CSTEF0Plaquemines Parish, LA0.115
February 1212:45 PM CSTEF1Rankin, MS3.2400$1.0 million
February 121:02 PM CSTEF0Saint Martin Parish, LA0.310$15,000
February 121:07 PM CSTEF1Rankin, MS2.7250$200,000
February 121:16 PM CSTEF0Iberia Parish, LA0.210$20,000
February 121:21 PM CSTEF0Pike, MS0.120
February 121:23 PM CSTEF0Saint Helena Parish, LA0.220
February 121:45 PM CSTEF0Smith, MS0.7150$25,000
February 121:45 PM CSTEF1Tangipahoa Parish, LA0.8201$25,000
February 121:53 PM CSTEF1Covington, MS1.5100$200,000
February 122:07 PM CSTEF1Jasper, MS0.9100$20,000
February 122:20 PM CSTEF0Saint Charles Parish, LA0.120
February 129:45 PM ESTEF0Collier, FL1.350$445,000
February 1211:03 PM ESTEF0Broward, FL3.1220$350,000

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.