Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2009
EF0 tornado, Inverness Arpt, Florida, June 23, 2009
This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Citrus County on June 23, 2009, touching down at 4:45 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $250,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 23, 2009
- Touchdown
- 4:45 PM EDT (20:45 UTC)
- Lifted
- 4:50 PM EDT (20:50 UTC)
- On the ground
- 5 minutes
- Path length
- 0.5 miles (0.8 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $250,000
- County
- Citrus County
- Touchdown point
- 28.787, -82.297
- Lift-off point
- 28.782, -82.301
- Record number
- 0906231445-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A frontal boundary gradually settled across the area on the 23rd and 24th. The energy associated with the boundary combined with warm afternoon temperatures to produce scattered thunderstorms mainly along and ahead of the boundary. Several thunderstorms produced large hail, strong damaging winds and two tornadoes.
A tornado touched down in the Castle Lake Mobile Home Park and the Stoneridge Landing Mobile Home Park, causing damage ranging from minor to severe to an estimated 50 mobile homes. The severe damage occurred to roofs and carports. In addition, 50 trees around the parks had the tops sheared off or twisted requiring removal of the trees. Winds were estimated at 85mph.
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.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:33 UTC and running to 01:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:27 UTC | 18:33 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | TBW |
| 14:48 UTC | 23:00 UTC | Heat Advisory | TBW |
| 18:33 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | TBW |
| 20:35 UTC | 21:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW |
| 21:18 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW |
| 21:33 UTC | 22:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | TBW |
| 21:47 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW |
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 19:45 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, 120 km from the path. June 23, 2009.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 4313 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -14 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 5199 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 753 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 107 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 105 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.1
- Supercell composite
- 6.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.5 K/km
Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 00:00Z
3.2 hours after it, 120 km from the path. June 24, 2009.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2441 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -9 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3121 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1166 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 15 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 36 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 62 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.1 K/km
The radar
The Tampa radar (KTBW), 120 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:43 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:08 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Sse Inverness | Citrus, FL | TREE FELL THROUGH HOUSE. NO INJURIES. |
| 20:29 UTC | HAIL 1 | 4 S Inverness | Citrus, FL | SPOTTER REPORTED QUARTER SIZED HAIL ONGOING AT TIME OF CALL |
| 20:50 UTC | HAIL 1 | Floral City | Citrus, FL | MEDIA RELAYED PUBLIC REPORT OF 1 INCH HAIL |
| 21:04 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nne Floral City | Citrus, FL | TREE FELL THROUGH HOUSE AND TRAPPED RESIDENT INSIDE. NO INJURIES. |
| 21:09 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 2 S Inverness | Citrus, FL | TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED ONGOING NICKEL SIZED HAIL |
| 21:27 UTC | TSTM WND GST 57 | 4 Sse Crystal River | Citrus, FL | TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED A 57 MPH WIND GUST MEASURED WITH AN ANEMOMETER |
| 21:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Se Inverness | Citrus, FL | SEVERAL MOBILE HOMES WITH SEVERE DAMAGE. NO INJURIES. |
| 22:00 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 Se Brooksville | Hernando, FL | QUARTER SIZED HAIL REPORTED NEAR EAST SUMMIT ROAD AND JEFFERSON STREET. REPORT RELAYED BY LOCAL MEDIA. |
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 June 23, 2009
7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 23 | 5:15 PM EDT | EF0 | Franklin, FL | 0.6 | 25 | $5,000 | ||
| June 23 | 4:58 PM MDT | EF0 | Elbert, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 23 | 7:07 PM CDT | EF0 | Logan, NE | 3.0 | 20 | |||
| June 23 | 8:09 PM CDT | EF0 | Rock, WI | 0.8 | 30 | $8,000 | ||
| June 23 | 8:54 PM CDT | EF0 | Custer, NE | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| June 23 | 8:07 PM MDT | EF0 | Logan, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 23 | 12:25 AM EDT | EF1 | Sarasota, FL | 0.6 | 100 | $350,000 |
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.