Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2009
EF0 tornado, (Nip)Nas Jacksonvill to Jacksonville, Florida, June 26, 2009
From (Nip)Nas Jacksonvill to Jacksonville, this EF0 tornado ran 7.1 miles across Duval County on June 26, 2009, touching down at 5:00 PM EDT and reaching 20 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.
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 26, 2009
- Touchdown
- 5:00 PM EDT (21:00 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:40 PM EDT (21:40 UTC)
- On the ground
- 40 minutes
- Path length
- 7.1 miles (11.5 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Duval County
- Touchdown point
- 30.210, -81.660
- Lift-off point
- 30.310, -81.690
- Record number
- 0906261500-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A waterspout developed over the St. Johns River north of the Buckman Bridge. The waterspout followed the river generally northward to northeast of the Ortega River entrance and south of the Fuller Warren Bridge near downtown Jacksonville before dissipating. Per eyewitness accounts and live TV web-cam coverage, there may have been two separate waterspouts near the Ortega River entrance. ||A severe storm over St. Johns county produced an outflow boundary which traveled north and collided with another out-flow boundary and the Atlantic coast sea breeze front. These three boundaries converged over the river which produced a small area of strong rotation which yielded the tornado.
A waterspout over the northern St. Johns River moved onshore as a tornado in the Riverside area of Jacksonville near Stockton Street and Post Street. Several trees were blown down and two trees fell on vehicles. Minor property damage occurred.
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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21:00 UTC | 21:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAX |
| 21:03 UTC | 21:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | JAX |
| 21:31 UTC | 22:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | JAX |
| 21:55 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | JAX |
| 22:00 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAX |
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 20:02 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.
Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 12:00Z
9.0 hours before the tornado, 27 km from the path. June 26, 2009.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1215 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -71 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 260 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1095 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 3 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -17 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -21 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z
3.0 hours after it, 27 km from the path. June 27, 2009.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1027 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -94 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 627 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1248 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 5 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 17 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 25 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.9 K/km
The radar
The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 25 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:20 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | Ese Hastings | St. Johns, FL | AN EMPLOYEE AT A SPORTS SHOP IN HASTINGS REPORTED WINDS ESTIMATED AT 50 TO 60 MPH. THERE WAS NO DAMAGE REPORTED. |
| 20:45 UTC | LIGHTNING | 6 Sw Normandy | Duval, FL | LIGHTNING CAUSED A HOUSE FIRE ON BIRDS NEST LANE ON THE WEST SIDE OF JACKSONVILLE. FIREFIGHTERS HAD THE FIRE UNDER CONTROL WITHIN 20 MINUTES. TIME ESTIMATED BY LIGHTNING DATA. |
| 20:55 UTC | LIGHTNING | 4 Ne Mandarin | Duval, FL | LIGHTNING CAUSED A HOUSE FIRE ON RIPPLE RUSH DRIVE NORTH IN THE MANDARIN AREA. A 6 FOOT BY 3 FOOT HOLE WAS CREATED IN THE ROOF. FIREFIGHTERS HAD THE FIRE UNDER CONTROL WITHIN 20 MINTUTES. TIME ESTIMATED BY LIGHTNING DATA |
| 21:00 UTC | WATER SPOUT | 4 Nnw Mandarin | Duval, FL | NUMEROUS REPORTS OF WATERSPOUT ON THE SAINT JOHNS RIVER. WATERSPOUT MOVED ALONG THE RIVER FROM NORTH OF THE BUCKMAN BRIDGE NORTHWARD TO NEAR THE ORTEGA RIVER ENTRANCE AND SOUTH OF THE FULLER WARREN BRIDGE BEFORE DISSIPAT |
| 21:15 UTC | HAIL 1 | 5 Wsw Unf | Duval, FL | QUARTER SIZE HAIL REPORTED AT BELFORT AND J. TURNER BUTLER AND PENNY SIZE HAIL REPORTED AT SAN JOSE NEAR I-295. |
| 21:15 UTC | HAIL 1 | 8 S Jacksonville Height | Clay, FL | QUARTER SIZE HAIL REPORTED AT BELFORT AND J. TURNER BUTLER AND PENNY SIZE HAIL REPORTED AT SAN JOSE NEAR I-295. |
| 21:40 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Wsw Arlington | Duval, FL | WATERSPOUT MOVED ONSHORE AS A TORNADO IN THE RIVERSIDE AREA OF JACKSONVILLE. SEVERAL TREES DOWNED INCLUDING 2 TREES ON VEHICLES. TIME IS APPROXIMATE. |
| 21:53 UTC | TSTM WND GST 44 | Jacksonville Intl Arpt | Duval, FL | |
| 22:03 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Callahan | Nassau, FL | A LOCAL TELEVISION STATION RECEIVED A REPORT OF NICKEL SIZED HAIL IN CALLAHAN. THE TIME GIVEN WAS BASED ON RADAR. |
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 26, 2009
18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 26 | 3:20 PM EDT | EF0 | Aroostook, ME | 0.7 | 50 | |||
| June 26 | 4:50 PM EDT | EF1 | Capitol Planning Region, CT | 1.7 | 40 | $750,000 | ||
| June 26 | 4:00 PM MDT | EF0 | Adams, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 26 | 5:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Benson, ND | 0.3 | 25 | |||
| June 26 | 5:32 PM CDT | EF0 | Nelson, ND | 3.0 | 100 | |||
| June 26 | 6:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Walsh, ND | 3.2 | 200 | |||
| June 26 | 6:30 PM CDT | EF1 | Grand Forks, ND | 7.0 | 200 | |||
| June 26 | 6:35 PM CDT | EF1 | Walsh, ND | 3.1 | 300 | $250,000 | ||
| June 26 | 6:43 PM CDT | EF0 | McLean, ND | 0.5 | 20 | |||
| June 26 | 6:55 PM CDT | EF1 | Walsh, ND | 3.6 | 250 | $7,000 | ||
| June 26 | 7:10 PM CDT | EF0 | McLean, ND | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| June 26 | 7:22 PM CDT | EF0 | Grand Forks, ND | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 26 | 7:43 PM CDT | EF0 | Grand Forks, ND | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 26 | 8:15 PM CDT | EF0 | Lincoln, NE | 0.1 | 20 | $750 | ||
| June 26 | 8:22 PM CDT | EF1 | Lincoln, NE | 0.1 | 20 | $152,000 | ||
| June 26 | 8:35 PM CDT | EF1 | Traill, ND | 0.1 | 100 | $150,000 | ||
| June 26 | 9:12 PM CDT | EF0 | Traill, ND | 2.9 | 75 | $5,000 | ||
| June 26 | 9:50 PM CDT | EF0 | Traill, ND | 1.0 | 75 |
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.