Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2010
EF0 tornado, Boca Raton, Florida, August 7, 2010
This EF0 tornado ran 1.8 miles across Palm Beach County on August 7, 2010, touching down at 6:02 PM EDT and reaching 30 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
- August 7, 2010
- Touchdown
- 6:02 PM EDT (22:02 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:10 PM EDT (22:10 UTC)
- On the ground
- 8 minutes
- Path length
- 1.8 miles (2.9 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Palm Beach County
- Touchdown point
- 26.332, -80.154
- Lift-off point
- 26.349, -80.131
- Record number
- 1008071602-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Unstable atmospheric conditions led to thunderstorm development along the sea breeze front during the afternoon hours, leading to convergence of strong storms over southern Palm Beach which triggered a tornado in the Boca Raton area.
A small and short-lived tornado moved through the West Boca area, with numerous reports received of trees down, overturned patio furniture, street lights knocked down, some roofing shingles blown off houses, and downed power lines from around the intersection of Powerline Road and SW 18th Street to the Boca Point Golf Course. No major structural damage was reported.||No damage assessment was performed by county officials due to the minor nature of the 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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:17 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | MFL |
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 19:46 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.
Miami, FL (KMFL), 12:00Z
10.0 hours before the tornado, 60 km from the path. August 7, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1896 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -2 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2123 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 696 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 3 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -11 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 12 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z
2.0 hours after it, 60 km from the path. August 8, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2925 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -6 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2803 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 698 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 6 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 9 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -6 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
The surface observations
Boca Raton Airport (BCT), 5 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:50 UTC | 89.6 | 75.2 | 170° 8 kt | 1012.9 | ||
| 22:50 UTC | 240° 8 kt | 1013.5 | RA | |||
| 23:50 UTC | 210° 4 kt | 1013.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Miami radar (KAMX), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:01 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:02 UTC | TORNADO | Boca Raton | Palm Beach, FL | A REPORT WAS RECEIVED FROM PALM BEACH COUNTY OF A BRIEF TORNADO NEAR 6061 BALBOA CR. DAMAGE CONFINED TO A FEW TREES AND POWER LINES. NO INJURIES OR STRUCTURE DAMAGE. |
| 22:05 UTC | TORNADO | Boca Raton | Palm Beach, FL | A REPORT WAS RECEIVED PATIO FURNITURE THROWN INTO A POOL, TREE UPROOTED, AND STREET LIGHTS KNOCKED DOWN AT SW18TH AND POWERLINE RD. FUNNEL CLOUD WAS SIGHTED. |
| 22:39 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Delray Beach | Palm Beach, FL | INTERMITTENT FUNNEL CLOUDS OVER WEST DELRAY. FUNNEL CURRENTLY LIFTED. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 7, 2010
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 7 | 1:10 PM EDT | EF0 | Volusia, FL | 0.8 | 40 | $58,000 | ||
| August 7 | 6:25 PM CDT | EF0 | Wilkin, MN to ND | 0.2 | 25 | |||
| August 7 | 6:25 PM CDT | EF4 | Tyler–Doran tornado, North Dakota and Minnesota | 5.0 | 600 | |||
| August 7 | 6:46 PM CDT | EF0 | Wilkin, MN | 1.0 | 15 | |||
| August 7 | 6:58 PM CDT | EF1 | Otter Tail, MN | 4.0 | 75 | |||
| August 7 | 7:33 PM CDT | EF0 | Otter Tail, MN | 0.2 | 25 | |||
| August 7 | 7:35 PM CDT | EF1 | Grant, MN | 21.0 | 100 | $25,000 | ||
| August 7 | 7:59 PM CDT | EF1 | Otter Tail, MN | 2.2 | 75 | |||
| August 7 | 11:37 PM CDT | EF0 | Polk, WI | 2.8 | 100 | 1 | $100,000 | |
| August 7 | 11:57 PM CDT | EF1 | Barron, WI | 3.2 | 125 | $250,000 |
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.