EF0 tornado, Vero Beach Airpark, 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

12:03 PM EDT (16:03 UTC)

Lifted

12:05 PM EDT (16:05 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.6 miles (2.6 km)

Path width

180 yards (165 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Indian River County

Touchdown point

27.626, -80.496

Lift-off point

27.647, -80.507

Record number

1208271003-01

Tropical Storm Isaac passed southwest of east-central Florida, making its closest approach during the late afternoon and evening hours of August 26. Two tornadoes developed during the morning of August 27 and several tropical storm force wind gusts were observed. County-averaged rainfall amounts over the 2-day period were as high as 10-12 inches within Okeechobee, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River Counties, with isolated totals of 14-17 inches. A majority of the heavy rain fell from early morning through late afternoon of August 27, when flooding resulted in numerous, temporary road closures. Water entered many homes in Okeechobee and Indian River Counties due to over-topping of local creeks/canals and overwhelming of drainage systems.

An EF0 tornado touched down just southeast of Indian River County Fire Station number 7 on 12th Street in Vero Beach. A discontinuous path of damage stretched 1.6 miles through the Vero Beach Estates and Countryside Village Mobile Home Parks, crossed State Road 60, and lifted just north of the Paradise Park residential area. A total of 95 structures (mostly mobile homes) were damaged, with 62 receiving minor damage and 33 sustaining major damage due to wind and rain. There were several short locations along the path were damage was minimal or non-evident. DI2 DOD4 LB; DI3 DOD4 LB-EXP, DI4 DOD7 LB.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:50 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.

Vero Beach (VRB), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 55 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:02 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.