Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2009

EF0 tornado, Vandolah, Florida, December 18, 2009

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Hardee County on December 18, 2009, touching down at 3:58 PM EST and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $75,000 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
December 18, 2009
Touchdown
3:58 PM EST (20:58 UTC)
Lifted
3:59 PM EST (20:59 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$75,000
County
Hardee County
Touchdown point
27.544, -81.919
Lift-off point
27.545, -81.916
Record number
0912181458-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An area of low pressure moved across northern Florida with a trailing cold front that moved through the area behind it. Along and ahead of the cold front were numerous showers with a few embedded thunderstorms. A brief and weak tornado spawned from one thunderstorm.

A narrow tornado briefly touched down 6.8 miles west of Wauchula at the Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation. The tornado flipped a vehicle, blew out windows in multiple vehicles, caused roof damage to two buildings, and downed trees.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
14:00 UTC23:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:51 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

9.0 hours before the tornado, 51 km from the path. December 18, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2009-12-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 414 joules per kilogram, CIN -14, lifted condensation level 460 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 2009-12-18The 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 264 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
414 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-14 J/kg
Surface CAPE
214 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
460 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
264 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
276 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
5.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.0 hours after it, 51 km from the path. December 19, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2009-12-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 51 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 644 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2009-12-19The 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 92 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
51 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
59 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
644 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
92 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
164 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

The surface observations

Bartow (BOW), 46 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:52 UTC71.668190° 10 kt161002.7-RA
20:13 UTC69.869.8210° 8 kt1002.4-RA BR
20:52 UTC69.869.8230° 7 kt1002-RA BR
21:50 UTC69.869.8210° 8 kt1001.4
22:35 UTC69.869.8230° 9 kt1001.7
22:55 UTC69.868240° 12 kt161002

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:59 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
20:59 UTCTORNADO2 N OnaHardee, FLTHE PUBLIC REPORTED A TORNADO OFF OF VANDOLAH ROAD. A ROOF WAS BLOWN OFF OF A BUILDING AND A CAR WAS OVERTURNED.

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 December 18, 2009

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 1811:00 AM ESTEF0Miami-Dade, FL1.150
December 182:35 PM ESTEF0Monroe, FL1.225$10,000
December 185:55 PM ESTEF0Monroe, FL0.110$5,000

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.