Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2008

EF0 tornado, Cape Coral, Florida, June 13, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Lee County on June 13, 2008, touching down at 4:45 PM EDT and reaching 70 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $110,000 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
June 13, 2008
Touchdown
4:45 PM EDT (20:45 UTC)
Lifted
4:48 PM EDT (20:48 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
70 yards (64 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$110,000
County
Lee County
Touchdown point
26.580, -81.983
Lift-off point
26.584, -81.983
Record number
0806131445-01

What the Weather Service recorded

High pressure ridging across the area kept easterly winds in place across the area. A sea breeze developed near the coast in the afternoon with showers and thunderstorms developing along the line. One storm moving along the sea breeze boundary interacted with the predominant easterly flow in place to produce a brief weak tornado in Cape Coral.

Damage was sustained by 18 homes near Pelican Boulevard. Fourteen homes incurred minor damage to pool cages and roof shingles. Four homes had moderate damage to roofs and soffits. The brief tornado occurred on the leading edge of a thunderstorm gust front. Wind speeds were estimated around 80mph.

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 20:07 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

8.8 hours before the tornado, 132 km from the path. June 13, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2008-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 158 joules per kilogram, CIN -110, lifted condensation level 862 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2008-06-13The 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 -24 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 7 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
158 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-110 J/kg
Surface CAPE
121 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
862 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-24 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
24 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 00:00Z

3.2 hours after it, 132 km from the path. June 14, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2008-06-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 492 joules per kilogram, CIN -52, lifted condensation level 975 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2008-06-14The 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 -41 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 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
492 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-52 J/kg
Surface CAPE
454 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
975 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-37 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGNne Cape CoralLee, FL12 HOMES WITH SOME ROOF DAMAGE NEAR SW 38TH TERRACE AND PELICAN BOULEVARD. MAINLY DAMAGE TO SHINGLES AND SOFFITS WITH A COUPLE OF HOMES SUSTAINING DAMAGE TO PLYWOOD ROOFING.
20:45 UTCTORNADO 0Nne Cape CoralLee, FL18 HOMES WITH SOME ROOF DAMAGE NEAR SW 38TH TERRACE AND PELICAN BOULEVARD. MAINLY DAMAGE TO SHINGLES AND SOFFITS WITH A COUPLE OF HOMES SUSTAINING DAMAGE TO PLYWOOD ROOFING.

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 June 13, 2008

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 132:03 PM EDTEF0Miami-Dade, FL0.010
June 132:10 PM EDTEF0Palm Beach, FL0.110
June 133:55 PM CDTEF1Carter, MO0.6125$50,000

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.