Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2009

EF0 tornado, Frontenac, Florida, April 14, 2009

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Brevard County on April 14, 2009, touching down at 11:01 AM EDT and reaching 30 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
April 14, 2009
Touchdown
11:01 AM EDT (15:01 UTC)
Lifted
11:02 AM EDT (15:02 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Brevard County
Touchdown point
28.465, -80.767
Lift-off point
28.465, -80.764
Record number
0904140901-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A squall line well ahead of a cold front produced numerous thunderstorms with damaging straight-line winds, large hail and a brief, weak tornado. Several Line Echo Wave Pattern (LEWP) features were apparent on radar with rotating comma head signatures.

National Weather Service Storm Survey revealed short line of damage through several buildings comprising the middle of the Frontenac Flea Market. The top wooden cross member of a single telephone phone was broken adjacent to the flea market, on the eastern side of US1 on Canebreakers Drive. Estimated winds were 65-75 mph. Two eyewitnesses driving north on US1 just SSE of the flea market observed a white, rotating vortex hit the flea market and cross US1 in front of them.

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

The warnings

8 minutes of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 14:53 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 15:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 10:19 UTC and running to 15:37 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:19 UTC15:37 UTCTornado WatchMLB
14:24 UTC15:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMLB
14:53 UTC15:30 UTCTornado WarningMLB
15:07 UTC15:31 UTCTornado WarningMLB
17:17 UTC00:00 UTCWind AdvisoryMLB

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:07 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.

Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), 12:00Z

3.0 hours before the tornado, 26 km from the path. April 14, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2009-04-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 101 joules per kilogram, CIN -253, lifted condensation level 1049 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 2009-04-14The 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 116 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 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
101 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-253 J/kg
Surface CAPE
73 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1049 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
116 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
155 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

9.0 hours after it, 26 km from the path. April 15, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2009-04-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 4 joules per kilogram, CIN -371, lifted condensation level 2250 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 2009-04-15The 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 71 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 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
4 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-371 J/kg
Surface CAPE
35 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2250 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
71 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
172 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 radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:02 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
13:58 UTCHAIL 0.255 Se East Lake TohoOsceola, FL
14:18 UTCTSTM WND GST 442 W Azalea ParkOrange, FLORLANDO EXECUTIVE AIRPORT MEASURED WIND GUST OF 44 MPH FROM THE WEST.
14:29 UTCTSTM WND GST 41OrlandoOrange, FLORLANDO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT MEASURED WIND GUST OF 41 MPH FROM THE WEST.
14:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Sw BithloOrange, FLANEMOMETER AND RAIN GAUGE RIPPED OFF BRACKETS AND BLOWN OVER. WIND GUSTS ESTIMATED 45-50 MPH.
15:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGPort Saint JohnBrevard, FLMOBILE HOMES DAMAGED NEAR FRONTEAC FLEA MARKET. TIME ESTIMATED.
15:05 UTCTSTM WND DMGMerritt IslandBrevard, FLSOFITS, AWINGS, SIGN AND METAL ROOF DAMAGE. SUNSET CAFE 500 W. COCOA BEACH CWSY. DAMAGE EST. 30,000. TIME OF EVENT ESTIMATED.
15:05 UTCTSTM WND DMGRockledgeBrevard, FLPORTION OF A ROOF DAMAGED. PICNIC TABLE FLEW OVER THE ROOF AND SWING SET IN THE BACKYARD LANDED IN THE FRONT YARD ON HUBBARD DRIVE. TIME ESTIMATED.
15:05 UTCTSTM WND DMGRockledgeBrevard, FLSTRAIGHT LINE WINDS TOOK DOWN HAM RADIO ANTENNA.
15:05 UTCNON-TSTM WND GST 43OrlandoOrange, FLKORL ORLANDO EXECUTIVE ARPT. OBSERVATION 1953Z RMK 18037/1905
15:05 UTCNON-TSTM WND GST 46Orlando International AOrange, FLKMCO ORLANDO INTERNATIONAL ARPT. OBDERVATION RMK 19040/1936
15:08 UTCTSTM WND GST 64RockledgeBrevard, FL54 FOOT LEVEL USAF TOWER IN ROCKLEDGE.
15:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGMerritt IslandBrevard, FLOFFICE BLDG. 3850 S. BANANA RIVER BLVD. ROOF DAMAGE, ROOF A/C UNIT AND INTERIOR WATER DAMAGE. DAMAGE ESTIMATE 25,000.TIME ESTIMATED
15:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 51Patrick Airforce BaseBrevard, FLPATRICK AFB MEASURED WIND GUST OF 51 MPH FROM THE WEST.
15:16 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 S Patrick Airforce BaBrevard, FLRELAYED FROM FLORIDA TODAY. SHINGLES BLOWN OFF ROOFS, TREE DOWN, LARGE POOL ENCLOUSRE BLOWN OVER.
15:17 UTCTSTM WND GST 49MelbourneBrevard, FLMELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT MEASURED WIND GUST OF 49 MPH FROM THE WEST.
15:18 UTCHAIL 0.7Cape CanaveralBrevard, FLSR 528 AND RIDGEWOOD.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 14, 2009

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 148:28 AM EDTEF1Pasco, FL2.475$275,000
April 149:00 AM EDTEF0Pasco, FL0.225$30,000

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.