Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2008
EF0 tornado, Plantation to Washinton Park, Florida, February 12, 2008
From Plantation to Washinton Park, this EF0 tornado ran 3.1 miles across Broward County on February 12, 2008, touching down at 11:03 PM EST and reaching 220 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $350,000 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
- February 12, 2008
- Touchdown
- 11:03 PM EST (04:03 UTC)
- Lifted
- 11:10 PM EST (04:10 UTC)
- On the ground
- 7 minutes
- Path length
- 3.1 miles (5.1 km)
- Path width
- 220 yards (201 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $350,000
- County
- Broward County
- Touchdown point
- 26.088, -80.189
- Lift-off point
- 26.132, -80.186
- Record number
- 0802122203-01
What the Weather Service recorded
An EF0 tornado moved north-northeast from just north of I-595 along SW 31st Ave to just south of Sunrise Blvd.
An EF0 tornado touched down just north of Interstate 595 and moved across the Riverland Village, Melrose Park and Washington Park neighborhoods of west Fort Lauderdale. The tornado moved north-northeast, roughly paralleling 31st Avenue, before lifting just south of Sunrise Boulevard. The tornado's widest point was about one-eighth of a mile between SW 4th St and SW 8th St, or between Davie and Broward Boulevards. Minor damage to roofs was noted along with fences, awnings, power lines and trees blown down.
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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:32 UTC and running to 12:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:26 UTC | 03:32 UTC | Tornado Watch | MFL |
| 03:32 UTC | 12:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | MFL |
| 04:06 UTC | 04:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | MFL |
| 04:13 UTC | 04:37 UTC | Tornado Warning | MFL |
| 04:59 UTC | 05:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | MFL |
| 05:29 UTC | 06:08 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MFL |
| 06:06 UTC | 06:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MFL |
| 06:17 UTC | 06:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | MFL |
| 06:29 UTC | 07:20 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MFL |
| 06:41 UTC | 07:06 UTC | Tornado Warning | MFL |
| 16:45 UTC | 19:42 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | MFL |
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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:58 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), 00:00Z
4.1 hours before the tornado, 34 km from the path. February 13, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 810 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -3 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1199 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 772 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 192 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 287 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.9
- Supercell composite
- 4.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
Miami, FL (KMFL), 12:00Z
7.9 hours after it, 34 km from the path. February 13, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 435 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -29 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 54 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 612 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 43 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 140 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 153 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 3.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
The radar
The Miami radar (KAMX), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:04 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04:03 UTC | TORNADO 0 | Fort Lauderdale | Broward, FL | EFO TORNADO REPORTED AT CATCAYLANE ST IN FORT LAUDERDALE. NWS SURVEY ESTIMATES TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN SOMEWHERE AROUND OR JUST NORTH OF THE INTERSECTION OF I-595 AND SW 31ST AVENUE AND MOVED NORTH NORTHEAST ALONG SW 31ST A |
| 04:10 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 4 W Fort Lauderdale | Broward, FL | FORT LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL AND MIAMI HERALD REPORT DOWNED POWER LINES, SEVERAL TREES KNOCKED OVER, AWNINGS AND CHAIN LINK FENCES DOWN IN A FORT LAUDERDALE NEIGHBORHOOD JUST NORTHEAST OF US 441 INTERSTATE 595 INTERCHANG |
| 04:10 UTC | TORNADO 0 | Fort Lauderdale | Broward, FL | REPORTED AT 3201 SW 17TH ST. NWS SURVEY ESTIMATES EF0. |
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.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 12 | 11:37 AM CST | EF0 | Harrison, MS | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| February 12 | 12:40 PM CST | EF0 | Plaquemines Parish, LA | 0.1 | 15 | |||
| February 12 | 12:45 PM CST | EF1 | Rankin, MS | 3.2 | 400 | $1.0 million | ||
| February 12 | 1:02 PM CST | EF0 | Saint Martin Parish, LA | 0.3 | 10 | $15,000 | ||
| February 12 | 1:07 PM CST | EF1 | Rankin, MS | 2.7 | 250 | $200,000 | ||
| February 12 | 1:16 PM CST | EF0 | Iberia Parish, LA | 0.2 | 10 | $20,000 | ||
| February 12 | 1:21 PM CST | EF0 | Pike, MS | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| February 12 | 1:23 PM CST | EF0 | Saint Helena Parish, LA | 0.2 | 20 | |||
| February 12 | 2:45 PM EST | EF0 | Brevard, FL | 0.1 | 30 | $200,000 | ||
| February 12 | 1:45 PM CST | EF0 | Smith, MS | 0.7 | 150 | $25,000 | ||
| February 12 | 1:45 PM CST | EF1 | Tangipahoa Parish, LA | 0.8 | 20 | 1 | $25,000 | |
| February 12 | 1:53 PM CST | EF1 | Covington, MS | 1.5 | 100 | $200,000 | ||
| February 12 | 2:07 PM CST | EF1 | Jasper, MS | 0.9 | 100 | $20,000 | ||
| February 12 | 2:20 PM CST | EF0 | Saint Charles Parish, LA | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| February 12 | 9:45 PM EST | EF0 | Collier, FL | 1.3 | 50 | $445,000 |
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.