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.

  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
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)ExpiredProductOffice
21:00 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAX
21:03 UTC21:45 UTCTornado WarningJAX
21:31 UTC22:15 UTCTornado WarningJAX
21:55 UTC23:30 UTCFlood AdvisoryJAX
22:00 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAX

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.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2009-06-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1215 joules per kilogram, CIN -71, lifted condensation level 1095 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2009-06-26The 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 -17 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 8 knots.1939Sfc1 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
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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z

3.0 hours after it, 27 km from the path. June 27, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2009-06-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1027 joules per kilogram, CIN -94, lifted condensation level 1248 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2009-06-27The 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 17 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 knots.193958Sfc1 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
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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:20 UTCTSTM WND GST 60Ese HastingsSt. Johns, FLAN EMPLOYEE AT A SPORTS SHOP IN HASTINGS REPORTED WINDS ESTIMATED AT 50 TO 60 MPH. THERE WAS NO DAMAGE REPORTED.
20:45 UTCLIGHTNING6 Sw NormandyDuval, FLLIGHTNING 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 UTCLIGHTNING4 Ne MandarinDuval, FLLIGHTNING 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 UTCWATER SPOUT4 Nnw MandarinDuval, FLNUMEROUS 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 UTCHAIL 15 Wsw UnfDuval, FLQUARTER SIZE HAIL REPORTED AT BELFORT AND J. TURNER BUTLER AND PENNY SIZE HAIL REPORTED AT SAN JOSE NEAR I-295.
21:15 UTCHAIL 18 S Jacksonville HeightClay, FLQUARTER SIZE HAIL REPORTED AT BELFORT AND J. TURNER BUTLER AND PENNY SIZE HAIL REPORTED AT SAN JOSE NEAR I-295.
21:40 UTCTORNADO5 Wsw ArlingtonDuval, FLWATERSPOUT MOVED ONSHORE AS A TORNADO IN THE RIVERSIDE AREA OF JACKSONVILLE. SEVERAL TREES DOWNED INCLUDING 2 TREES ON VEHICLES. TIME IS APPROXIMATE.
21:53 UTCTSTM WND GST 44Jacksonville Intl ArptDuval, FL
22:03 UTCHAIL 0.88CallahanNassau, FLA 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.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 263:20 PM EDTEF0Aroostook, ME0.750
June 264:50 PM EDTEF1Capitol Planning Region, CT1.740$750,000
June 264:00 PM MDTEF0Adams, CO0.150
June 265:30 PM CDTEF0Benson, ND0.325
June 265:32 PM CDTEF0Nelson, ND3.0100
June 266:30 PM CDTEF0Walsh, ND3.2200
June 266:30 PM CDTEF1Grand Forks, ND7.0200
June 266:35 PM CDTEF1Walsh, ND3.1300$250,000
June 266:43 PM CDTEF0McLean, ND0.520
June 266:55 PM CDTEF1Walsh, ND3.6250$7,000
June 267:10 PM CDTEF0McLean, ND0.120
June 267:22 PM CDTEF0Grand Forks, ND0.125
June 267:43 PM CDTEF0Grand Forks, ND0.125
June 268:15 PM CDTEF0Lincoln, NE0.120$750
June 268:22 PM CDTEF1Lincoln, NE0.120$152,000
June 268:35 PM CDTEF1Traill, ND0.1100$150,000
June 269:12 PM CDTEF0Traill, ND2.975$5,000
June 269:50 PM CDTEF0Traill, ND1.075

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.