Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2009

EF1 tornado, Tarpon Springs Comps Site to New Port Rw Pasco Ar, Florida, April 14, 2009

From Tarpon Springs Comps Site to New Port Rw Pasco Ar, this EF1 tornado ran 2.4 miles across Pasco and Pinellas counties on April 14, 2009, touching down at 8:28 AM EDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $275,000 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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
April 14, 2009
Touchdown
8:28 AM EDT (12:28 UTC)
Lifted
8:33 AM EDT (12:33 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
2.4 miles (3.8 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$275,000
Counties
Pasco and Pinellas counties
Touchdown point
28.172, -82.710
Lift-off point
28.182, -82.673
Record number
0904140628-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A line of showers and thunderstorms moving ahead of a cold front spawned two tornadoes and produced some damaging winds across the Tampa Bay area.

The damage included a collapsed and destroyed barn, a green house that could not be found, fence damage, and tree limbs down. Winds were estimated at 80mph.

There were 50 homes with light damage, and seven homes with moderate or greater damage. Several tree trunks were snapped, some half-way up the trunk, and several trees were uprooted. One business had minor roof damage with awnings and a fence destroyed. The damage path was narrow and not continuous. Winds were estimated at 95mph.

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

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS TBW issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:25 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 12:41 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 10:21 UTC and running to 15:46 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:21 UTC15:46 UTCTornado WatchTBW
12:17 UTC13:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTBW
12:25 UTC12:41 UTCTornado WarningTBW
14:00 UTC00:00 UTCLake Wind AdvisoryTBW

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 05:58 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.

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 12:00Z

0.5 hours before the tornado, 60 km from the path. April 14, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, 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 1552 joules per kilogram, CIN -39, lifted condensation level 782 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, Tampa Bay, 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 201 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 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
1552 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-39 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1211 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
782 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
201 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
260 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.3
Supercell composite
13.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.5 hours after it, 60 km from the path. April 15, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, 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 178 joules per kilogram, CIN -520, lifted condensation level 1093 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, Tampa Bay, 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 415 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 76 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
178 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-520 J/kg
Surface CAPE
159 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1093 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
76 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
415 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
461 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:30 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
12:23 UTCTSTM WND GST 60N Tarpon SpringsPinellas, FLTREES AND POWER LINES DOWN IN NORTH TARPON SPRINGS.
12:31 UTCTORNADO4 E HolidayPasco, FLTORNADO DAMAGE REPORTED IN TRINITY OAKS SUBDIVISION.
12:48 UTCTSTM WND GST 683 Sw OdessaHillsborough, FLMEASURED WIND GUST FROM HOME WEATHER EQUIPMENT LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 3 MILES WEST OF COUNTRY ROAD 54 AND STATE HIGHWAY 41 ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE PASCO/HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY LINE.
12:50 UTCTORNADO 02 Ssw Land O' LakesPasco, FLPUBLIC REPORT OF A TORNADO JUST NORTH OF INTERSECTION OF STATE ROAD 54 AND U.S. HIGHWAY 41 MOVING EAST NORTHEAST.
12:55 UTCHAIL 0.251 N CarrollwoodHillsborough, FLPEA SIZE HAIL REPORTED IN CITRUS PARK AREA
13:00 UTCTSTM WND GST 60ZephyrhillsPasco, FLSEVERAL TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN IN ZEPHYRHILLS AND LAKE BERNADETTE.
13:00 UTCTORNADO3 Nne Wesley ChapelPasco, FLPOSSIBLE TORNANDO. NWS ON ROUTE TO DO SURVEY.
13:06 UTCTSTM WND GST 60ZephyrhillsPasco, FLSEVERAL TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN IN ZEPHYRHILLS AND LAKE BERNADETTE.

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 149:00 AM EDTEF0Pasco, FL0.225$30,000
April 1411:01 AM EDTEF0Brevard, FL0.230

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.