Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2011

EF0 tornado, Bucanan to Ona, Florida, January 25, 2011

From Bucanan to Ona, this EF0 tornado ran 0.9 miles across Hardee County on January 25, 2011, touching down at 6:41 PM EST 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.

  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
January 25, 2011
Touchdown
6:41 PM EST (23:41 UTC)
Lifted
6:43 PM EST (23:43 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.9 miles (1.4 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hardee County
Touchdown point
27.410, -81.700
Lift-off point
27.411, -81.686
Record number
1101251741-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A low pressure system over the northeast Gulf of Mexico moved northeast across northern Florida and sent a squall line through the area. The thunderstorms brought damaging winds, large hail, minor flooding and a few weak tornadoes.

A tornado was reported in rural Hardee County. No damage was reported. The time was estimated off of radar.

A tornado was reported in rural Hardee County. No damage was reported. The time was estimated off of radar.

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

The warnings

11 minutes of warning. NWS TBW issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:30 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:10 UTC and running to 00:56 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:00 UTC23:00 UTCLake Wind AdvisoryTBW
19:10 UTC00:56 UTCTornado WatchTBW
23:01 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningTBW
23:30 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningTBW
23:54 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTBW
00:01 UTC00:30 UTCTornado WarningTBW

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 19:25 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.

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 12:00Z

11.7 hours before the tornado, 77 km from the path. January 25, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2011-01-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 5 joules per kilogram, CIN -221, lifted condensation level 717 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, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2011-01-25The 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 368 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
5 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-221 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
717 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
368 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
493 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:41 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
23:15 UTCTORNADO4 Wnw Myakka HeadManatee, FLPUBLIC REPORT OF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN NEAR HIGHWAY 64 AND WINGATE ROAD. NO DAMAGE REPORTED AT THIS TIME.
23:41 UTCTORNADO8 Se Zolfo SpringsHardee, FLTORNADO IN RURAL HARDEE COUNTY REPORTED TO HARDEE COUNTY S.O. NO DAMAGE REPORTED. TIME ESTIMATED OFF OR RADAR.
00:08 UTCTORNADO3 Se OnaHardee, FLTORNADO IN RURAL HARDEE REPORTED TO HARDEE E.M. NO DAMAGE REPORTED. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
01:09 UTCTORNADO1 W Spring LakeHighlands, FLPUBLIC REPORTED TORNADO TOUCHDOWN RELAYED BY SHERIFFS OFFICE IN RURAL AREA NEAR U.S. HWY 98 AND AIRPORT RD. SEVERAL TREES AND NUMEROUS BRANCHES DOWN AS WELL AS FENCING DOWN REPORTED IN SEVERAL LOTS IN NORTHWEST SECTIONS

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

The other tornadoes of January 25, 2011

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
January 254:35 PM ESTEF0Sumter, FL0.930
January 256:15 PM ESTEF0Manatee, FL1.030
January 257:08 PM ESTEF0Hardee, FL1.130
January 257:40 PM ESTEF0Lee, FL0.350$100,000
January 258:09 PM ESTEF0Highlands, FL0.930$5,000
January 2510:50 PM ESTEF0Palm Beach, FL0.250$20,000

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.