Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2010

EF0 tornado, Bridgeport, Florida, June 20, 2010

This EF0 tornado ran 3.4 miles across Putnam County on June 20, 2010, touching down at 5:55 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 20, 2010
Touchdown
5:55 PM EDT (21:55 UTC)
Lifted
6:00 PM EDT (22:00 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
3.4 miles (5.5 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Putnam County
Touchdown point
29.750, -81.556
Lift-off point
29.799, -81.563
Record number
1006201555-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A short wave trough in the mid levels traverse the area in the afternoon over an unstable and moist low level air mass. This energy combined with convergence along the sea breezes and resultant outflow boundaries created scattered severe storms in the afternoon and evening.

A waterspout developed over the St. Johns River north of Palatka and was spotted near Racy Point. The spout formed from a low level boundary collision between the east coast sea breeze and outflow from a severe storm moving northward from eastern Putnam County. There were sporadic reports of funnel clouds from U.S. Highway 17 then from State Road 207 around 5:55 pm however locations of the funnel cloud were given in various locations. There was no mesocyclone nor low level rotational signature on Doppler radar and environmental conditions were not favorable for mesocyclone tornadoes (i.e. no wind shear). There was no damage with the vortex and it never made landfall.

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)ExpiredProductOffice
21:47 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 19:58 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

9.9 hours before the tornado, 82 km from the path. June 20, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2010-06-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1442 joules per kilogram, CIN -42, lifted condensation level 789 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, Jacksonville, FL at 12:00Z on 2010-06-20The 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 -27 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 5 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
1442 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-42 J/kg
Surface CAPE
616 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
789 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-27 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-3 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z

2.1 hours after it, 82 km from the path. June 21, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2010-06-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 760 joules per kilogram, CIN -74, lifted condensation level 1089 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, Jacksonville, FL at 00:00Z on 2010-06-21The 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 -25 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 6 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
760 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-74 J/kg
Surface CAPE
849 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1089 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-25 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
10 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

St Augustine Airpt (SGJ), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:58 UTC8875130° 14 kt1014.9
20:58 UTC8876130° 16 kt1015.2
21:58 UTC8475140° 14 kt201015.2
22:33 UTC84.273.4200° 20 kt261016.3VCTS
22:43 UTC82.471.6220° 13 kt231016.9VCTS
22:58 UTC7769240° 14 kt231016.9

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

The radar

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:53 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
19:24 UTCTSTM WND GST 505 Nne Orange ParkDuval, FLNAS JACKSONVILLE REPORTED A PEAK WIND OF 50 MPH.
20:24 UTCTSTM WND GST 505 Nne Orange ParkDuval, FLNAS JACKSONVILLE REPORTED A PEAK WIND OF 50 MPH.
21:10 UTCTSTM WND GST 55MiddleburgClay, FLRETIRED NWS EMPLOYEE REPORTED WIND GUSTS BETWEEN 50 AND 55 MPH IN MIDDLEBURG.
21:55 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDHastingsSt. Johns, FLCENTRAL DISPATCH RELAYED SEVERAL PUBLIC REPORTS OF FUNNEL CLOUD SIGHTINGS IN WESTERN ST JOHNS COUNTY NEAR THE HASTINGS AREA. NO DAMAGE WAS REPORTED.
21:55 UTCWATER SPOUT4 Nnw East PalatkaPutnam, FLPUBLIC REPORTS OF A WATERSPOUT OVER THE ST JOHNS RIVER NEAR RACY POINT. COULD BE SEEN BY RESIDENTS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE RIVER ALONG U.S. HIGHWAY 17 AND STATE ROAD 207. PHOTOS AND VIDEO WERE ON THE EVENING NEWS AND OTHER
22:00 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDEast PalatkaPutnam, FLLAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTED A FUNNEL CLOUD MOVING NORTH NEAR HIGHWAY 207 AND HIGHWAY 17. POSSIBLE TORNADO TOUCHDOWN. NO DAMAGE REPORTED.
22:03 UTCHAIL 0.754 Wnw HastingsPutnam, FLPENNY SIZE HAIL WAS REPORTED AND TREE LIMBS WERE BLOWN DOWN ALONG KELLY SMITH RANCH ROAD OFF OF WEST RIVER ROAD.
22:05 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 N East PalatkaPutnam, FLPOWER LINES AND TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN ALONG COUNTY ROAD 207A.

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 June 20, 2010

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 203:25 PM CDTEF0Scott, KS0.9100
June 203:43 PM CDTEF0Scott, KS0.5100
June 204:24 PM MDTEF2Yellowstone, MT0.7120$30 million
June 204:26 PM MDTEF0Platte, WY7.2100
June 205:20 PM MDTEF0Converse, WY0.325
June 205:57 PM MDTEF0Pennington, SD0.120$2,000
June 207:20 PM CDTEF0Jewell, KS0.120
June 207:50 PM CDTEF2Nuckolls, NE1.51,300

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.