Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2009
EF0 tornado, Lake Parker, Florida, May 12, 2009
This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Polk County on May 12, 2009, touching down at 5:00 PM EDT and reaching 15 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $15,000 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
- May 12, 2009
- Touchdown
- 5:00 PM EDT (21:00 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:01 PM EDT (21:01 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.0 miles (0.1 km)
- Path width
- 15 yards (14 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $15,000
- County
- Polk County
- Touchdown point
- 28.069, -81.907
- Lift-off point
- 28.069, -81.906
- Record number
- 0905121500-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A remnant frontal boundary in place across north-central Florida combined with a warm, moist, unstable airmass and the east and west coast sea breeze boundaries to develop numerous thunderstorms across the area.
A tornado lasting less than 30 seconds touched down along Smithtown Drive. Damage consisted of many large tree beanches downed, an uprooted tree, and a torn apart wooden carport. Flying debris also caused several broken windows, heavy damage to fences, and areas of roof and carport damage. Winds were estimated at 80mph.
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:41 UTC | 21:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW |
| 20:42 UTC | 21:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW |
| 21:28 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW |
| 21:35 UTC | 22:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | 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. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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
9.0 hours before the tornado, 63 km from the path. May 12, 2009.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1274 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -57 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 9 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 756 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 4 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 9 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -33 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 17 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 00:00Z
3.0 hours after it, 63 km from the path. May 13, 2009.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 105 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -170 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 609 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1196 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -217 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -140 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.9 K/km
The surface observations
Lakeland Regional (LAL), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19:50 UTC | 91.4 | 60.8 | 120° 10 kt | 1013.5 | ||
| 20:20 UTC | 86 | 64.4 | 130° 7 kt | 1013.5 | TSRA | |
| 20:50 UTC | 71.6 | 66.2 | 280° 15 kt | 22 | 1014.9 | TSRA |
| 21:50 UTC | 10° 7 kt | 15 | 1016.6 | +TSRA | ||
| 22:09 UTC | 10° 4 kt | 1016.9 | -TSRA | |||
| 22:50 UTC | 50° 7 kt | 1016.3 | -RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Tampa radar (KTBW), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:58 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19:49 UTC | HAIL 0.5 | 5 W Oak Ridge | Orange, FL | MARBLE SIZE HAIL ALONG APOPKA-VINELAND ROAD IN DR. PHILLIPS. RELAYED BY WPOZ |
| 19:54 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | 1 W Doctor Phillips | Orange, FL | VARIOUS REPORTS OF PEA SIZE HAIL DOCTOP PHILLIPS AND BAY HILL AREA. REPORT RELAYED BY WPOZ |
| 21:00 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ene Lakeland | Polk, FL | NEAR INTERSECTION OF SMITHTOWN DR AND TERRY ROAD. 4-5 FOOT OAK TREE UPROOTED AND FELL ON CARPORT AND PART OF HOUSE. ALSO HAD STURDY WOOD CARPORT LIFTED AND THROWN INTO AN ALUMINUM CARPORT NEXT DOOR. REPORT RELAYED BY POL |
| 21:28 UTC | TSTM WND GST 51 | Tampa | Hillsborough, FL | 45 KNOT WIND GUST AT TAMPA AIRPORT |
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 May 12, 2009
3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.