EF0 tornado, Cruise Terminal 2 Port Site, Florida, August 27, 2012

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

August 27, 2012

Touchdown

4:44 PM EDT (20:44 UTC)

Lifted

4:45 PM EDT (20:45 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.0 miles (0.1 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$2,000

County

Hillsborough County

Touchdown point

27.940, -82.434

Lift-off point

27.940, -82.434

Record number

1208271444-01

Tropical Storm Isaac crossed eastern Cuba on August 25th and moved northwest through the Florida Keys and into the eastern Gulf of Mexico. A Tropical Storm Watch was issued for Pinellas County south through Lee County on the morning of the 25th and was extended north through Levy County that afternoon. Tropical Storm Warnings were issued overnight on the 25th/early morning on the 26th for the entire area. Additionally, the Governor of Florida issued a declaration of a state of emergency on the 25th. Isaac stayed off the western Florida coast and eventually made landfall in southeastern Louisiana at Hurricane strength.||The impacts of Isaac over west central and southwest Florida were minimal. One waterspout was spotted over the Tampa Bay and moved inland as a brief tornado with minor damage. ||The heaviest rain fell in Highlands County, with over 6 inches of rain across most of the county, and minor road flooding reported. The highest storm total rain report for the area was 6.71 inches at the CoCoRaHS station 3.9 SSW Sebring. Additional flooding occurred along the Myakka River near Venice in Sarasota County, where a mobile home park sustained minor flooding. ||Tropical storm force wind gusts were confined to coastal area, with wind gusts of 34 to 46 knots reported along the coast.||Storm surge was fairly minor, with less than 3 feet of surge at all forecast points. At Fort Myers, 2.31 feet of surge was reported, or 3.22 feet of storm tide (MLLW). At Saint Petersburg, 2.48 feet of surge was reported, or 3.90 feet of storm tide (MLLW). At McKay Bay Entrance, 2.56 feet of surge was reported, or 4.19 feet of storm tide (MLLW). At Cedar Key, 2.91 feet of storm surge was reported, or 5.77 feet of storm tide (MLLW).

A waterspout moved ashore and damaged six residences on Maple Avenue near 22nd Street. Local fire and rescue reported minor damage to fences and trees on the properties and very minor roof damage.

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

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.

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 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 19:58 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 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/Knight (TPF), 3 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:42 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.