Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2010

EF0 tornado, Vero Beach Airpark, Florida, June 18, 2010

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Indian River County on June 18, 2010, touching down at 4:54 PM EDT and reaching 10 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 18, 2010
Touchdown
4:54 PM EDT (20:54 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Indian River County
Touchdown point
27.650, -80.562
Lift-off point
27.650, -80.562
Record number
1006181454-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A thunderstorm briefly became severe and produced damaging winds, affecting a small area in St. Cloud. Another strong storm west of Vero Beach produced an outflow boundary which intersected a newly developing cell, resulting in funnel cloud and brief tornado (landspout) touchdown.

A funnel cloud was reported near the intersection of Highway 60 and Interstate 95, west of Vero Beach by several individuals, including a County Sheriff, pilot, Vero Beach Weather Observer and the public. A storm chaser video-taped a brief tornado touchdown in association with the funnel cloud. Radar imagery indicated that the tornado was a landspout which formed as an outflow boundary from strong convection farther west intersected a newly developed storm to the east of the main convection. The tornado touched down in a rural area and no damage occurred.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Melbourne, FL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 18, 3:06 PM EDT, 1 hour 48 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 18, 3:06 PM EDT, 1 hour 48 minutes before
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Hazardous weather outlook, Jun 18, 5:55 AM EDT, 10 hours 59 minutes before
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL
555 AM EDT FRI JUN 18 2010

AMZ550-552-555-570-572-575-FLZ041-044>047-053-054-058-059-064-141-
144-147-182200-
COASTAL WATERS FROM FLAGLER BEACH TO VOLUSIA BREVARD COUNTY LINE
OUT 20 NM-
COASTAL WATERS FROM VOLUSIA BREVARD COUNTY LINE TO SEBASTIAN
INLET OUT 20 NM-
COASTAL WATERS FROM SEBASTIAN INLET TO JUPITER INLET OUT 20 NM-
WATERS FROM FLAGLER BEACH TO VOLUSIA BREVARD COUNTY LINE 20 TO
60 NM OFFSHORE-
WATERS FROM VOLUSIA BREVARD COUNTY LINE TO SEBASTIAN INLET 20 TO
60 NM OFFSHORE-
WATERS FROM SEBASTIAN INLET TO JUPITER INLET 20 TO 60 NM OFFSHORE-
INLAND VOLUSIA-NORTHERN LAKE-ORANGE-SEMINOLE-SOUTHERN BREVARD-
OSCEOLA-INDIAN RIVER-OKEECHOBEE-ST. LUCIE-MARTIN-COASTAL VOLUSIA-
SOUTHERN LAKE-NORTHERN BREVARD-
555 AM EDT FRI JUN 18 2010

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT.

...THUNDERSTORM IMPACT...
DAYTIME HEATING OF A MOIST AIR MASS WILL LEAD TO SCATTERED TO
NUMEROUS LIGHTNING STORMS THIS AFTERNOON. THE PRIMARY FOCUS WILL
BE THE EAST AND WEST COAST SEA BREEZE BOUNDARIES...WITH THE
HIGHEST STORM COVERAGE OCCURRING ACROSS THE INTERIOR. HOWEVER...
COASTAL SECTIONS WILL HAVE A CHANCE FOR STORMS ALONG THE SLOWLY
INLAND MOVING SEA BREEZE WITH SOME ACTIVITY PUSHING BACK TOWARD
THE COAST LATE IN THE DAY.

THE PRIMARY HAZARD WILL BE FREQUENT TO EXCESSIVE LIGHTNING
STRIKES. THOUGH THERE HAVE BEEN NO REPORTS OF PEOPLE BEING
STRUCK BY LIGHTNING THE PAST FEW DAYS...SEVERAL STRUCTURAL FIRES
HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY LIGHTNING. A FEW STORMS MAY ALSO PRODUCE 50-60
MPH WINDS AND SMALL HAIL. YOU SHOULD MOVE INDOORS AT THE FIRST
SIGN OF A DEVELOPING STORM IN YOUR VICINITY.

...FLOOD IMPACT...
WEAK WINDS THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE WILL LEAD TO VERY SLOW STORM
MOTION. LOCALIZED RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 2 TO 4 INCHES ARE EXPECTED
AGAIN THIS AFTERNOON...CAUSING PONDING OF WATER ON ROADWAYS AND
MINOR FLOODING.

...EXCESSIVE HEAT IMPACT...
AFTERNOON TEMPERATURES IN THE LOWER TO MID 90S COMBINED WITH
TYPICAL FLORIDA SUMMERTIME HUMIDITY VALUES WILL PRODUCE HEAT INDEX
READINGS OF 100 TO 104...BEFORE SOME COOLING OCCURS FROM
THUNDERSTORMS OR ASSOCIATED CLOUD COVER. THOSE WITH OUTDOOR
ACTIVITIES SHOULD BE ALERT FOR SIGNS OF HEAT STRESS AND REMEMBER
TO DRINK PLENTY OF WATER.

...MARINE THUNDERSTORM GUST IMPACT...
SCATTERED STORMS WITH FREQUENT TO EXCESSIVE LIGHTNING AND STRONG
OUTFLOW WINDS WILL OCCUR ACROSS EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA THIS
AFTERNOON. THE GREATEST COVERAGE SHOULD BE INLAND FROM THE COAST
BUT A FEW STORMS MAY PUSH OFFSHORE LATE IN THE DAY.

IF YOU GO BOATING DURING THE FLORIDA WET SEASON...IT IS USUALLY A
GOOD IDEA TO WRAP THINGS UP AROUND MIDDAY...UNLESS YOU ARE
PREPARED TO AVOID OR RIDE OUT A STRONG STORM.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY.
TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN NEAR NORMAL THROUGH THE EXTENDED AS A
WEAK UPPER LEVEL TROUGH OVER THE REGION GIVES WAY TO DEEP EASTERLY
FLOW ACROSS THE PENINSULA EARLY NEXT WEEK. SCATTERED AFTERNOON
LIGHTNING STORMS CAN BE EXPECTED EACH DAY WITH THE MAIN HAZARD
BEING DANGEROUS LIGHTNING STRIKES. THE POSSIBILITY FOR ONSHORE
MOVING NIGHTTIME AND EARLY MORNING SHOWERS AND STORMS WILL
INCREASE EARLY NEXT WEEK.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...
SPOTTERS ARE REQUESTED TO MONITOR THE WEATHER AND SELF ACTIVATE
IF NEEDED.

KELLY

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Jun 18, 3:02 PM EDT, 1 hour 52 minutes before
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The surface observations

Vero Beach (VRB), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:51 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.

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 June 18, 2010

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 184:55 PM CDTEF0Madison, IA0.625

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.