Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2010
EF0 tornado, West Eaugallie, Florida, March 28, 2010
This EF0 tornado ran 2.3 miles across Brevard County on March 28, 2010, touching down at 6:00 PM EDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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
- March 28, 2010
- Touchdown
- 6:00 PM EDT (22:00 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:04 PM EDT (22:04 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 2.3 miles (3.7 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $5,000
- County
- Brevard County
- Touchdown point
- 28.119, -80.713
- Lift-off point
- 28.134, -80.679
- Record number
- 1003281600-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Several strong thunderstorms moved from south of Orlando to the coast of Brevard County. One of the storms became severe and produced a very weak tornado starting just southwest of Interstate 95 and continuing for 2.4 miles, affecting a small portion of Melbourne. Damage along the track ranged from downed tree branches and palm fronds, to a toppled large tree and minor damage to two structures (one permanent home and one unoccupied mobile home). Winds were estimated at 50 to 60 mph.
Very weak EF0 tornado traveled from just southwest of Interstate 95 and Eau Gallie Boulevard In Melbourne to just southwest of the intersection of Aurora Road and Wickham Road. Damage consisted of broken tree branches and palm fronds, to a toppled large tree and minor damage to two structures (one unoccupied mobile home and a permanent home). DI3 DOD1 (LB-EXP).
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
43 minutes of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:17 UTC, 43 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21:17 UTC | 22:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | MLB |
| 21:55 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | MLB |
| 22:45 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Flood Advisory | MLB |
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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.
Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), 12:00Z
10.0 hours before the tornado, 43 km from the path. March 28, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -30911 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 862 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 49 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 18 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 141 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 236 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.6 K/km
Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), 00:00Z
2.0 hours after it, 43 km from the path. March 29, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 84 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -70 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 206 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 786 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 89 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 234 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.4 K/km
The radar
The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 4 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:00 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:23 UTC | TSTM WND GST 50 | 9 Nne Lake Kissimmee | Osceola, FL | SKYWARN SPOTTER ESTIMATED 45-55 MPH WIND GUSTS AND TORRENTIAL RAINFALL. NUMEROUS CARS PULLED OFF THE ROAD ON THE TURNPIKE 5 TO 8 MILES SOUTH OF THE CANOE CREEK SERVICE AREA. |
| 22:00 UTC | TORNADO | Melbourne | Brevard, FL | EF0 TORNADO WAS CONFIRMED WITH PATH LENGTH OF 2.4 MILES FROM SOUTHWEST OF I-95 AND EAU GALLIE INTERSECTION TO SOUTHWEST OF AURORA AND WICKHAM ROAD INTERSECTION. MAXIMUM ESTIMATED WINDS OF 60 MPH BLEW DOWN NUMEROUS TREE B |
| 22:06 UTC | TSTM WND GST 43 | Melbourne | Brevard, FL | FROM 270 DEGREES AT MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. |
| 22:06 UTC | TORNADO | Melbourne | Brevard, FL | POSSIBLE TORNADO ON CYPRESS BEND CIRCLE OFF JOHN RODES BLVD. TREE BRANCHES BROKE SEVERAL WINDOWS OF A RESIDENCE. |
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 March 28, 2010
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 28 | 5:06 PM EDT | EF1 | Edgefield, SC | 13.3 | 110 | |||
| March 28 | 5:37 PM EDT | EF1 | Gaston, NC | 0.1 | 100 | $1.1 million | ||
| March 28 | 6:46 PM EDT | EF2 | Rowan, NC | 5.0 | 200 | 5 | $1.8 million | |
| March 28 | 7:15 PM EDT | EF1 | Davidson, NC | 0.8 | 50 | $750,000 | ||
| March 28 | 7:30 PM EDT | EF3 | Guilford, NC | 3.5 | 250 | $10 million | ||
| March 28 | 10:02 PM EDT | EF0 | Halifax, VA | 0.2 | 100 | $15,000 | ||
| March 28 | 10:24 PM EDT | EF2 | Edgefield, SC | 2.4 | 440 | $250,000 | ||
| March 28 | 11:25 PM EDT | EF2 | Lexington, SC | 5.0 | 440 | 1 | $1.0 million | |
| March 28 | 11:55 PM EDT | EF1 | Person, NC | 4.0 | 75 | $250,000 | ||
| March 28 | 12:03 AM EDT | EF0 | Fairfield, SC | 2.0 | 60 |
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.