Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2009

EF0 tornado, Carrollwood, Florida, June 30, 2009

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Hillsborough County on June 30, 2009, touching down at 3:05 PM EDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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
June 30, 2009
Touchdown
3:05 PM EDT (19:05 UTC)
Lifted
3:06 PM EDT (19:06 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Hillsborough County
Touchdown point
28.062, -82.512
Lift-off point
28.061, -82.511
Record number
0906301305-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A trough of low pressure was in place across the area and high pressure was ridging across south Florida with an upper level disturbance moving into the area from the north. Numerous thunderstorms developed in this moist and unstable environment producing a tornado.

A brief and weak tornado touched down across Golf Crest Circle as the result of two merging thunderstorms. Three nearly 100-foot tall pine trees were blown over, one falling on a house causing major roof damage.

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
19:09 UTC19:30 UTCTornado WarningTBW

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 15:50 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

7.1 hours before the tornado, 41 km from the path. June 30, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2009-06-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2970 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 585 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 12:00Z on 2009-06-30The 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 30 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 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
2970 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3437 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
585 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
30 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
82 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.9 hours after it, 41 km from the path. July 1, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2009-07-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2872 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 519 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 00:00Z on 2009-07-01The 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 146 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 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
2872 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3623 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
519 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
146 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
162 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
7.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Tampa International Airport (TPA), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:53 UTC8175200° 14 kt191009.8
18:19 UTC80.675.2210° 10 kt1009.5-RA
18:25 UTC80.677210° 8 kt1009.5-RA BR
18:53 UTC7976250° 12 kt221009.8-RA BR
19:53 UTC8076200° 4 kt1009.8-RA BR
20:30 UTC78.875.20° 0 kt1009.5BR
20:47 UTC7773.4 4 kt1009.8-RA BR
20:53 UTC7674 3 kt1009.1-RA BR

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

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:05 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
19:05 UTCTORNADO1 Nw CarrollwoodHillsborough, FLTHREE PINE TREES DOWN ALONG WITH PHONE LINES ALONG GOLF CREST CIRCLE IN CARROLLWOOD VILLAGE. ONE TREE LANDED ON A HOUSE BREAKING SOME SHINGLES. TORNADO IS RATED AN EF-0 BASED ON SURVEY BY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT. TIME ESTIM

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 30, 2009

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 303:00 PM MDTEF0Campbell, WY0.010
June 306:08 PM MDTEF0Wibaux, MT0.35

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.