Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2012

EF0 tornado, Moore Haven, Florida, July 12, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Glades County on July 12, 2012, touching down at 3:12 PM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
July 12, 2012
Touchdown
3:12 PM EDT (19:12 UTC)
Lifted
3:13 PM EDT (19:13 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Glades County
Touchdown point
26.840, -81.128
Lift-off point
26.840, -81.128
Record number
1207121312-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A nearly stationary weak upper level low pressure area over the Southeast Gulf of Mexico provided a flow of very moist and unstable air to move across South Florida with scattered afternoon showers and thunderstorms.

The Glades County Emergency Manager reported a tornado touched down in open country near the intersection of U.S. 27 and State Road 78. There were no reports of injuries, fatalities or damage.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:13 UTC19:30 UTCTornado 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 17:50 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 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), 12:00Z

7.2 hours before the tornado, 141 km from the path. July 12, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2012-07-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1482 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 729 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 2012-07-12The 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 -1 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 3 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1482 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1966 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
729 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-1 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
11 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

4.8 hours after it, 141 km from the path. July 13, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2012-07-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1995 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 744 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2012-07-13The 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 -10 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 7 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1995 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2398 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
744 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-10 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
68 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 149 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:13 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
19:12 UTCTORNADO6 W Moore HavenGlades, FLGLADES COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT REPORTED A TORNADO TOUCHING DOWN IN GLADES COUNTY NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF U.S. 27 AND STATE ROAD 78. NO REPORT OF INJURIES, FATALITIES OR DAMAGE.
19:50 UTCTORNADO6 N Moore HavenAmz610, FLCORRECTION TO PREVIOUS REPORT... GLADES COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT REPORTED A TORNADO TOUCHING DOWN IN GLADES COUNTY ABOUT 6 MILES NORTH OF MOORE HAVEN. NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF U.S. 27 AND STATE ROAD 78. NO REPORT OF I
19:50 UTCCOASTAL FLOOD6 N Moore HavenAmz610, FLGLADES COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT REPORTED A TORNADO TOUCHING DOWN IN GLADES COUNTY ABOUT 6 MILES NORTH OF MOORE HAVEN. NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF U.S. 27 AND STATE ROAD 78. NO REPORT OF INJURIES, FATALITIES OR DAMAGE AT

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

The other tornadoes of July 12, 2012

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 124:38 PM CDTEF1Grand Forks, ND2.5200

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.