Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2012

EF1 tornado, Charlotte Harbor, Florida, January 27, 2012

This EF1 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Charlotte County on January 27, 2012, touching down at 5:35 AM EST and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
January 27, 2012
Touchdown
5:35 AM EST (10:35 UTC)
Lifted
5:45 AM EST (10:45 UTC)
On the ground
10 minutes
Path length
0.8 miles (1.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$30,000
County
Charlotte County
Touchdown point
26.998, -82.028
Lift-off point
27.002, -82.018
Record number
1201270435-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front moved southeast across central Florida overnight, creating scattered storms. One storm produced a brief EF-1 tornado that caused significant roof damage to two buildings.

A tornado touched down and caused significant roof damage to a single family home and an apartment complex. Minor roof damage occurred at two adjacent single family homes. Additional minor damage was sustained to the roof of a convenience store and nearby trees. Winds were estimated at 95 miles per hour.

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:33 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), 00:00Z

10.6 hours before the tornado, 87 km from the path. January 27, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2012-01-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 8 joules per kilogram, CIN -58, lifted condensation level 1198 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 00:00Z on 2012-01-27The 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 49 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
8 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-58 J/kg
Surface CAPE
85 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1198 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
49 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
78 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.4 hours after it, 87 km from the path. January 27, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2012-01-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 218 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 492 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 2012-01-27The 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 205 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
218 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6 J/kg
Surface CAPE
40 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
492 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
205 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
275 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:36 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
10:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ene Port CharlotteCharlotte, FLROOF DAMAGE TO 2 STRUCTURES
10:45 UTCTORNADO5 Ene Port CharlotteCharlotte, FLEF-1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN AND CAUSED SIGNIFICANT ROOF DAMAGE TO A SINGLE FAMILY HOME AND AN APARTMENT COMPLEX. ADDITIONAL MINOR ROOF DAMAGE WAS SUSTAINED AT TWO ADJACENT SINGLE FAMILY HOMES. ADDITIONAL MINOR DAMAGE WAS S

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

This ground now

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

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.