Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2008

EF0 tornado, Palm Bay, Florida, November 30, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Brevard County on November 30, 2008, touching down at 3:35 PM EST and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $576,000 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
November 30, 2008
Touchdown
3:35 PM EST (20:35 UTC)
Lifted
3:37 PM EST (20:37 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$576,000
County
Brevard County
Touchdown point
28.000, -80.639
Lift-off point
28.001, -80.637
Record number
0811301435-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Storms ahead of a strong squall line downed several trees and power lines and produced two brief, short-tracked tornadoes.

Low end EF0 tornado, estimated 65 to 75 mph, touched down in southwest Palm Bay and damaged 26 structures, mainly within the Holiday Park mobile home community. Damage mostly involved roofs, fences and exterior surfaces.

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 18:13 UTC and running to 21:39 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:00 UTC23:00 UTCLake Wind AdvisoryMLB
18:13 UTC21:39 UTCTornado WatchMLB
18:49 UTC19:20 UTCTornado WarningMLB
19:50 UTC20:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMLB
20:09 UTC20:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMLB
20:45 UTC21:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMLB

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 20:01 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

8.6 hours before the tornado, 54 km from the path. November 30, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2008-11-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 70 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 626 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 12:00Z on 2008-11-30The 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 348 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
70 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
626 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
348 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
437 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 13 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:35 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
19:53 UTCTSTM WND GST 47MelbourneBrevard, FLKMLB ASOS OBSERVATION 2053Z RMK 21041/2030. MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
19:53 UTCTSTM WND GST 49Kennedy Space CenterBrevard, FLKENNEDY SPACE CENTER OBSERVATION KTTS 1955Z RMK PK WND 26043/53
20:35 UTCTORNADOPalm BayBrevard, FLEF0 -ZERO- TORNADO IN SOUTHWEST PALM BAY INCLUDING HOLIDAY PARK. ESTIMATED WINDS OF 65 TO 75 MPH.
20:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGPalm BayBrevard, FLROOF DAMAGE TO SEVEN MOBILE HOMES NEAR INTERSECTION OF MYSTIC AND CAPER IN THE HOLIDAY PARK MOBILE HOME PARK.NO INJURIES REPORTED.
20:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGSuntreeBrevard, FLSEVERAL SPANISH TILES BLOWN OFF ROOF OF HOME. LIMBS UP TO 5 INCHES IN DIAMETER RIPPED OFF PINE TREE.
21:08 UTCTSTM WND GST 44Vero BeachIndian River, FLKVRB ASOS OBSERVATION 2108Z RMK PK WND 24038/2108.

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 November 30, 2008

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 3012:55 PM ESTEF0Osceola, FL0.120

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.