Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2011

EF0 tornado, Boca Raton, Florida, January 25, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Palm Beach County on January 25, 2011, touching down at 10:50 PM EST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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 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
10:50 PM EST (03:50 UTC)
Lifted
10:51 PM EST (03:51 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Palm Beach County
Touchdown point
26.346, -80.132
Lift-off point
26.345, -80.129
Record number
1101252150-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Strong to severe storms ahead of a cold front moved across South Florida during the evening hours of January 25.

A small and brief tornado touched down in the Cameo Woods development of Boca Raton near the intersection of Camino Real and Military Trail. Damage was exclusively to vegetation, including an uprooted large avocado tree and several large branches snapped off or broken. About 30 trees in total were damaged by the tornado. Estimated wind speeds were in the 70-75 mph range, indicative of an EF0 tornado.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:09 UTC and running to 04:28 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:09 UTC04:28 UTCTornado WatchMFL
03:23 UTC04:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:58 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.

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

3.8 hours before the tornado, 61 km from the path. January 26, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2011-01-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1046 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 569 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 2011-01-26The 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 201 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1046 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1608 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
569 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
201 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
276 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.3
Supercell composite
8.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 12:00Z

8.2 hours after it, 61 km from the path. January 26, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2011-01-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 107 joules per kilogram, CIN -185, lifted condensation level 922 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 12:00Z on 2011-01-26The 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 140 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
107 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-185 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
922 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
140 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
159 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:47 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
03:47 UTCTSTM WND GST 62Deerfield BeachBroward, FLA THUNDERSTORM PRODUCED A WIND GUST OF 62 MPH IN DEERFIELD BEACH
03:48 UTCTSTM WND GST 641 E ParklandBroward, FLA THUNDERSTORM PRODUCED A WIND GUST OF 64 MPH AT THE INTERSECTION OF WEST HILLSBORO AND SOUTH POWERLINE DRIVE NEAR PARKLAND
03:50 UTCTSTM WND GST 49Boynton BeachPalm Beach, FLA THUNDERSTORM PRODUCED A WIND GUST OF 49 MPH IN WEST BOYNTON BEACH.
03:50 UTCTORNADO 0Boca RatonPalm Beach, FLFOLLOWING REPORTS FROM THE PUBLIC RELAYED TO THE NWS BY THE MEDIA, A TEAM SURVEYED THE AREA THIS MORNING. IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF CAMEO WOODS NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF MILITARY TRAIL AND CAMINO REAL, LARGE SNAPPED OFF TREE
04:10 UTCTSTM WND GST 55Opa-LockaMiami-Dade, FLA THUNDERSTORM PRODUCED A WIND GUST OF 55 MPH AT MIAMI DADE FIRE RESCUE IN OPA LOCKA AS WELL AS OPA LOCKA AIRPORT.
04:20 UTCTSTM WND GST 52Miami BeachMiami-Dade, FLA THUNDERSTORM PRODUCED A WIND GUST OF 52 MPH IN MIAMI BEACH.

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 256:41 PM ESTEF0Hardee, FL0.930
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

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.