Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2011

EF1 tornado, Lauderdale Lakes to Coral Spgs, Florida, August 2, 2011

From Lauderdale Lakes to Coral Spgs, this EF1 tornado ran 2.1 miles across Broward County on August 2, 2011, touching down at 5:03 PM EDT and reaching 90 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $180,000 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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
August 2, 2011
Touchdown
5:03 PM EDT (21:03 UTC)
Lifted
5:08 PM EDT (21:08 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
2.1 miles (3.4 km)
Path width
90 yards (82 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$180,000
County
Broward County
Touchdown point
26.200, -80.250
Lift-off point
26.227, -80.233
Record number
1108021503-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Numerous late afternoon thunderstorms developed over SE Florida. A tornado formed near the intersection of two thunderstorm cells in the Tamarac and North Lauderdale area of Broward County.

A tornado with estimated maximum winds of 85-90 mph, or on very low end of EF1 scale, moved through portions of Tamarac and North Lauderdale north of McNab RD and east of University DR. The path length was about 2 miles and max path width 90 yards. Most damage was to roofing material and vegetation, with the roof partially peeled off on home and frame windows broken and blown from a couple of others. About 30 homes were damaged.

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)ExpiredProductOffice
21:18 UTC21:45 UTCTornado WarningMFL

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 19:38 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

9.1 hours before the tornado, 44 km from the path. August 2, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2011-08-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2036 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 713 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2011-08-02The 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 -10 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 2 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
2036 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2992 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
713 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
2 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-10 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

2.9 hours after it, 44 km from the path. August 3, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2011-08-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2696 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 728 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, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2011-08-03The 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 -4 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 8 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
2696 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3988 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
728 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-4 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
13 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 69 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:03 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
21:03 UTCTORNADO2 E TamaracBroward, FLTORNADO WITH ESTIMATED MAXIMUM WINDS OF 85-90 MPH, OR ON VERY LOW END OF EF1 SCALE, MOVED THROUGH PORTIONS OF TAMARAC AND NORTH LAUDERDALE NORTH OF MCNAB RD AND EAST OF UNIVERSITY DR. PATH LENGTH 1 MILE AND MAX PATH WIDT
21:05 UTCTORNADO2 E TamaracBroward, FLSTORM SPOTTER REPORTED A TORNADO IN NORTH FORT LAUDERDALE WITH FLYING DEBRIS INCLUDING METAL AND A TIRE.
21:11 UTCTORNADOSw TamaracBroward, FLBROADCAST MEDIA RELAYED REPORTS OF A TORNADO ON THE GROUND IN TAMARAC NEAR MCNAB ROAD AND 80TH AVENUE AT 511 PM EDT. DAMAGE TO 4 HOMES WAS ALSO REPORTED.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

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.