Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2012
EF0 tornado, Lake Louisa to Mohawk, Florida, June 24, 2012
From Lake Louisa to Mohawk, this EF0 tornado ran 3.7 miles across Lake County on June 24, 2012, touching down at 8:59 PM EDT and reaching 100 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
- 8:59 PM EDT (00:59 UTC)
- Lifted
- 9:05 PM EDT (01:05 UTC)
- On the ground
- 6 minutes
- Path length
- 3.7 miles (6.0 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Lake County
- Touchdown point
- 28.485, -81.661
- Lift-off point
- 28.539, -81.662
- Record number
- 1206241859-01
What the Weather Service recorded
While Tropical Storm Debby was located over the northeast Gulf of Mexico, numerous strong rain bands rotated across east-central Florida. One particular persistent, mini-supercell produced three tornadoes as it traveled north from Okeechobee to Brevard County. The tornadoes occurred over rural areas of Osceola and Brevard Counties, which limited damage. Another mini-supercell moved north from Polk County and produced discontinuous tornado damage along a 3.7 mile path in southeast Lake County. A linear squall line behind the mini-supercells caused a localized area of property damage in northwest Osceola County. A canoe capsized on an inland lake in Lake County due to gusty winds and choppy conditions on the water, resulting in a drowning. Multi-day rainfall totals exceeded four inches across portions of Seminole, Orange, Volusia and Lake Counties, with maximum accumulations of 7-9 inches near Pierson, Lady Lake, and Astor Park in Lake County. No significant flooding occurred due to abnormally dry soil conditions prior to the rain event.
A mini-supercell traveled from Polk County to southeast Lake County and produced an EF0 tornado along a discontinuous path of 3.7 miles within Winter Garden in Lake County, just west of the Orange County line. The storm crossed Johns Lake, producing tornado damage on both the south and immediate north sides of the lake. Numerous trees were damaged as far south as Avalon Woods Drive, with four adjacent homes in the Suburban Shores Subdivision experiencing property damage on the northern end of the damage path. The damage consisted of large branches on a vehicle, a large tree on a roof of another home, and other homes with significant damage to pool screen enclosures. The supercell also produced a tornado nearly an hour earlier, well to the south in Polk County. DI28, DOD2, LB-EXP.
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.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:46 UTC and running to 08:39 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15:48 UTC | 23:46 UTC | Tornado Watch | MLB |
| 23:46 UTC | 08:39 UTC | Tornado Watch | MLB |
| 01:46 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Flood Watch | MLB |
| 08:39 UTC | 17:57 UTC | Tornado Watch | MLB |
| 15:00 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Lake Wind Advisory | MLB |
| 17:57 UTC | 01:32 UTC | Tornado Watch | MLB |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 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.
Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), 00:00Z
1.0 hours before the tornado, 114 km from the path. June 25, 2012.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 680 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -16 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1513 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 719 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 268 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 377 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.6
- Supercell composite
- 9.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.9 K/km
Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), 12:00Z
11.0 hours after it, 114 km from the path. June 25, 2012.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 628 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -7 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 723 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 784 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 169 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 120 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.5
- Supercell composite
- 7.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
The radar
The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:57 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:48 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 6 Nw Lake Wales | Polk, FL | FUNNEL CLOUD TOUCH DOWN IN WINTERSET LAKE AREA, NEAR THOMPSON NURSERY ROAD AND SR ROAD 653. MINOR DAMAGE OF UNKNOWN EXTANT. |
| 22:48 UTC | FLOOD | Lake Panasoffkee | Sumter, FL | E-SPOTTER REPORTED HEAVY FLOODING AROUND LAKE PANASOFFKEE. 6 PLUS INCHES NEAR CR 461 WEST. 8 PLUS INCHES OF MOVING WATER IN CR 470 AREA. |
| 00:10 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Se Winter Haven | Polk, FL | SEMI OVERTURNED IN DITCH WITH TREES AND POWER LINES DOWNED IN THE GROVE PARK AREA JUST NORTH OF THE INTERSECTION OF CYPRESS GARDEN ROAD AND REGISTER ROAD. TIME BASED ON RADAR. REPORT WAS CORRECTED FOR TIME. |
| 00:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Wsw Winter Garden | Lake, FL | LAKE COUNTY FIRE RESCUE REPORTED FOUR ADJACENT HOMES ON SHORE DRIVE ON JOHNS LAKE SUSTAINED PROPERTY DAMAGE. LARGE BRANCHES ON VEHICLE. LARGE TREE ON ROOF OF ANOTHER HOME. ADJACENT HOME WITH POOL SCREEN ENCLOSURE RIPPED |
| 00:25 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Se Winter Haven | Polk, FL | SEMI OVERTURNED IN DITCH WITH TREES AND POWER LINES DOWNED IN THE GROVE PARK AREA JUST NORTH OF THE INTERSECTION OF CYPRESS GARDEN ROAD AND REGISTER ROAD. |
| 01:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Wsw Emeralda | Lake, FL | LARGE TREE DOWN IN ROAD. |
| 02:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Wsw Celebration | Osceola, FL | ABOUT TWO BLOCKS OF DAMAGE IN INDIAN RIDGE SUBDIVISION NEAR INDIAN RIVER TRAIL NORTH IN KISSIMMEE. ONE AWNING RIPPED FROM HOME. THREE ADJACENT HOMES WITH SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO POOL SCREEN ENCLOSURES. SEVERAL HOMES WITH M |
| 03:00 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 5 | Debary | Volusia, FL | 24 HOUR RAINFALL ENDING AT 11 PM. |
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 | 11:10 AM EDT | EF0 | Collier, FL | 16.2 | 30 | |||
| 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 | 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.