Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2012
EF0 tornado, Goodland to Golden Gate, Florida, June 24, 2012
From Goodland to Golden Gate, this EF0 tornado ran 16.2 miles across Collier County on June 24, 2012, touching down at 11:10 AM EDT and reaching 30 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- June 24, 2012
- Touchdown
- 11:10 AM EDT (15:10 UTC)
- Lifted
- 11:40 AM EDT (15:40 UTC)
- On the ground
- 30 minutes
- Path length
- 16.2 miles (26.1 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Collier County
- Touchdown point
- 25.762, -81.641
- Lift-off point
- 25.990, -81.580
- Record number
- 1206240910-01
What the Weather Service recorded
The outer bands from Tropical Storm Debby located in the Northeast Gulf of Mexico continued to move over South Florida. Severe thunderstorms developed during the late morning into the afternoon with severe wind gusts and eight tornadoes were also spawned. The eight tornadoes that occurred over a span of four hours was the most number of tornadoes in one day over the southern Florida peninsula since October 14, 1964 when Hurricane Isbell also spawned eight tornadoes. All of the tornadoes were of EF0 intensity.
Storm spotter videos, observations and Doppler radar data indicated that a waterspout moving NNE over Sullivan Bay passed about 3 miles east of Cape Romano then moved over Blackwater Bay and onto the mainland three miles east of Goodland. The tornado was captured on video crossing US 41 near a roadside picnic area about 1/2 mile east of the Collier-Seminole State Park entrance. Damage was confined to trees in a non-populated area of the Everglades.
A trained spotter observed a tornado just north of Alligator Alley about 10 miles west of State Road 29. This tornado was likely spawned by the same storm that produced the earlier tornado in southern Collier County.
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:12 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 22:56 UTC | 00:09 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 08:48 UTC | 20:10 UTC | Small Craft Advisory | MFL |
| 13:10 UTC | 13:45 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 15:12 UTC | 15:45 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 15:52 UTC | 23:58 UTC | Tornado Watch | MFL |
| 23:39 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 23:58 UTC | 03:15 UTC | Tornado Watch | MFL |
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 12:12 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
3.2 hours before the tornado, 132 km from the path. June 24, 2012.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 3139 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -1 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3862 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 527 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 181 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 204 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 8.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z
8.8 hours after it, 132 km from the path. June 25, 2012.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2990 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- 0 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 4110 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 539 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 181 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 225 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 10.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.1 K/km
The surface observations
Naples Municipal (APF), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13:10 UTC | 80.6 | 78.8 | 1011.9 | TS BR | ||
| 13:32 UTC | 80.6 | 77 | 140° 9 kt | 1012.2 | VCTS BR | |
| 13:37 UTC | 80.6 | 77 | 140° 9 kt | 1012.2 | VCTS -RA BR | |
| 13:53 UTC | 80.24 | 76.82 | 140° 13 kt | 1012.5 | -RA BR | |
| 14:53 UTC | 79.7 | 75 | 150° 7 kt | 18 | 1012.5 | RA BR |
| 15:11 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 160° 14 kt | 1012.2 | VCTS -RA BR | |
| 15:26 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 160° 14 kt | 1012.2 | -RA BR | |
| 15:53 UTC | 79.52 | 74.3 | 160° 14 kt | 1012.2 | -RA BR | |
| 16:15 UTC | 80.6 | 75.2 | 160° 13 kt | 1011.9 | VCTS -RA BR | |
| 16:30 UTC | 80.6 | 75.2 | 160° 13 kt | 1011.5 | -RA BR | |
| 16:53 UTC | 80 | 74.48 | 160° 13 kt | 1011.5 | -RA BR |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Miami radar (KAMX), 124 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:10 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:40 UTC | TORNADO | E Goodland | Collier, FL | AT 1150 AM EDT...A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC REPORTED THAT A TORNADO FORMED JUST EAST OF GOODLAND AND WAS MOVING EASTWARD. THE TORNADO CROSSED US-41...TAMIAMI TRAIL...AND WAS HEADING TOWARD I-75...ALLIGATOR ALLEY. REPORT DELA |
| 16:10 UTC | TORNADO | 10 Wnw Rock Island | Collier, FL | TORNADO SPOTTED BY TRAINED SPOTTER JUST NORTH OF ALLIGATOR ALLEY ABOUT 10 MILES WEST OF STATE ROAD 29. |
| 16:35 UTC | TORNADO | 8 Sw Immokalee | Collier, FL | TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED TORNADO AT THE INTERSECTION OF IMMOKALEE ROAD AND EVERGLADES BLVD. |
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 June 24, 2012
21 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 24 | 10:15 AM EDT | EF0 | Hardee, FL | 17.0 | 100 | $65,000 | ||
| June 24 | 11:00 AM EDT | EF0 | Glades, FL | 0.0 | 10 | $5,000 | ||
| June 24 | 12:00 PM EDT | EF0 | Collier, FL | 0.0 | 20 | |||
| June 24 | 12:23 PM EDT | EF0 | Highlands, FL | 3.5 | 150 | 1 | $15,000 | |
| June 24 | 12:25 PM EDT | EF0 | Palm Beach, FL | 0.0 | 20 | |||
| June 24 | 12:25 PM EDT | EF0 | Collier, FL | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| June 24 | 1:25 PM EDT | EF0 | Palm Beach, FL | 1.2 | 30 | $50,000 | ||
| June 24 | 2:05 PM EDT | EF0 | Miami-Dade, FL | 0.5 | 20 | $10,000 | ||
| June 24 | 3:04 PM EDT | EF0 | Glades, FL | 0.0 | 20 | |||
| June 24 | 3:23 PM EDT | EF1 | Highlands, FL | 5.3 | 100 | $60,000 | ||
| June 24 | 3:40 PM EDT | EF1 | Pinellas, FL | 0.7 | 75 | $130,000 | ||
| June 24 | 4:39 PM EDT | EF0 | Hillsborough, FL | 1.1 | 50 | $90,000 | ||
| June 24 | 5:17 PM EDT | EF1 | Pasco, FL | 0.4 | 75 | $650,000 | ||
| June 24 | 6:55 PM EDT | EF0 | Polk, FL | 0.9 | 25 | $4,000 | ||
| June 24 | 8:04 PM EDT | EF2 | Polk, FL | 6.2 | 150 | $390,000 | ||
| June 24 | 8:21 PM EDT | EF1 | Pinellas, FL | 3.0 | 50 | $150,000 | ||
| June 24 | 8:59 PM EDT | EF0 | Lake, FL | 3.7 | 100 | |||
| June 24 | 9:55 PM EDT | EF0 | Osceola, FL | 3.1 | 100 | |||
| June 24 | 9:57 PM EDT | EF1 | Citrus, FL | 5.0 | 100 | $90,000 | ||
| June 24 | 10:46 PM EDT | EF0 | Osceola, FL | 1.1 | 50 | |||
| June 24 | 11:37 PM EDT | EF0 | Brevard, FL | 1.2 | 25 |
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.