EF0 tornado, Gomez, Florida, October 29, 2011

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

October 29, 2011

Touchdown

9:18 AM EDT (13:18 UTC)

Lifted

9:19 AM EDT (13:19 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.4 miles (0.6 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Martin County

Touchdown point

27.109, -80.150

Lift-off point

27.115, -80.146

Record number

1110290718-01

A mini-supercell storm exhibited persistent rotation on radar as it tracked over rural western Martin County, southeast of Indiantown, to Hobe Sound, then into the adjacent Atlantic. The cell developed within a localized region of sufficient shear and instability, associated with the moisture from the remnants of Hurricane Rina over the Gulf of Mexico. An EF0 touched down in Hobe Sound and damaged numerous mobile homes. After the tornado lifted, the cell continued toward the coast, with a second tornado touchdown within a heavily wooded residential community. Damage to multiple trees occurred. The cell then began to dissipate as it approached the intracoastal waterway.

A NWS Storm Survey team confirmed a brief touchdown of an EF0 tornado within the Ridgeway Mobile Home Park in Hobe Sound. Winds were estimated at 65 to 70 mph. The tornado removed the roof from one mobile home and carried it approximately 50 yards downwind. Small portions of metal roofs were peeled back from three other mobile homes. Thirty eight additional mobile homes experienced minor damage to window awnings and carports. Two vehicles experienced damage due to movement by the wind into an adjacent structure. Three large palm trees were uprooted or toppled, and many smaller trees sustained damage. The tornado lifted just prior to reaching Highway A1A. DI3 DOD4 LB.

The cell which produced the Ridgeway Mobile Home Park tornado moments earlier, produced another brief EF0 tornado which impacted the Loblolly Bay residential community. The tornado toppled multiple trees, then likely moved over Peck Lake as a waterspout. Winds were estimated at 65 to 75 mph. A video of the circulation and debris was taken by a homeowner located one mile due south of the tornado.

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

NWS Melbourne, FL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Oct 29, 3:23 AM EDT, 5 hours 55 minutes earlier.

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In the hours before

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Witham Field Airport/Stuart (SUA), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 122 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:18 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.

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

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.