Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2009

EF1 tornado, Hidden River, Florida, June 23, 2009

Name: EF1 tornado, Hidden River, Florida, June 23, 2009
Start: 2009-06-24T04:25:00.000Z
End: 2009-06-24T04:30:00.000Z
Location: Hidden River, Florida

This EF1 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Sarasota County on June 23, 2009, touching down at 12:25 AM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $350,000 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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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: EF1
Date: June 23, 2009
Touchdown: 12:25 AM EDT (04:25 UTC)
Lifted: 12:30 AM EDT (04:30 UTC)
On the ground: 5 minutes
Path length: 0.6 miles (1.0 km)
Path width: 100 yards (91 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $350,000
County: Sarasota County
Touchdown point: 27.339, -82.329
Lift-off point: 27.330, -82.328
Record number: 0906232225-01

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.

The tornado touched down along Fruitville Road, snapping a few trees, and then traveled south into a plant farm. It tore two metal beams from the foundation of a metal building on the farm and then moved across a field of more than two dozen greenhouses, destroying or seriously damaging all but one. The tornado then continued south into a wooded area, where it damaged a few more trees before lifting. Winds were estimated around 95mph.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Tampa Bay, FL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 23, 2:39 PM EDT, 9 hours 46 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 23, 2:39 PM EDT, 9 hours 46 minutes before

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Hazardous weather outlook, Jun 23, 9:25 AM EDT, 15 hours before

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In the hours before

Special weather statement, Jun 23, 7:04 PM EDT, 5 hours 21 minutes before

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Special weather statement, Jun 23, 7:09 PM EDT, 5 hours 16 minutes before

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Special weather statement, Jun 23, 7:21 PM EDT, 5 hours 4 minutes before

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Special weather statement, Jun 23, 7:49 PM EDT, 4 hours 36 minutes before

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The surface observations

Sarasota-Bradenton (SRQ), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 42 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:25 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2009 tornado in Florida Every tornado in Florida since 1950 Warnings in force in Florida now The 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)	Damage
June 23	4:45 PM EDT	EF0	Citrus, FL	0.5	50	$250,000
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

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.