Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2012
EF0 tornado, Golden Beach, Florida, June 24, 2012
This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Miami-Dade County on June 24, 2012, touching down at 2:05 PM EDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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.
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
- 2:05 PM EDT (18:05 UTC)
- Lifted
- 2:06 PM EDT (18:06 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.5 miles (0.8 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $10,000
- County
- Miami-Dade County
- Touchdown point
- 25.966, -80.118
- Lift-off point
- 25.975, -80.119
- Record number
- 1206241205-01
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.
The Golden Beach Police Department reported a waterspout moving onshore at the 400 block of Ocean Boulevard and quickly moving north along the beach side of Ocean Boulevard to the Broward County line. Path was approximately 0.5 miles. Beach chairs were tossed about 30 feet in the air, damage to trees and a hut in the 400-500 block of Ocean Boulevard. Most damage occurred at 625 Ocean Boulevard where doors and a large metal gate were blown down and twisted, along with tree branches snapped.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:47 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 06:18 UTC | 07:15 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 07:13 UTC | 08:15 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 09:45 UTC | 10:45 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 10:44 UTC | 11:45 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 11:40 UTC | 12:45 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 12:41 UTC | 13:45 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 13:48 UTC | 14:45 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 14:44 UTC | 15:45 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 17:28 UTC | 18:00 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 17:54 UTC | 19:00 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 18:54 UTC | 20:24 UTC | Marine Warning | MFL |
| 00:46 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Small Craft Advisory | 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:35 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
6.1 hours before the tornado, 24 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
5.9 hours after it, 24 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
Hollywood/N. Perry (HWO), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:45 UTC | 82.4 | 75.2 | 170° 12 kt | 21 | 1014.9 | HZ |
| 16:53 UTC | 83 | 77 | 160° 13 kt | 18 | 1014.6 | HZ |
| 17:35 UTC | 82.4 | 77 | 140° 12 kt | 17 | 1014.2 | VCTS |
| 17:50 UTC | 80.6 | 73.4 | 130° 11 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 17:53 UTC | 81 | 74 | 130° 10 kt | 1014.2 | -RA | |
| 18:28 UTC | 84.2 | 77 | 170° 9 kt | 1013.9 | VCTS HZ | |
| 18:38 UTC | 84.2 | 77 | 170° 12 kt | 19 | 1013.9 | HZ |
| 18:53 UTC | 84 | 77 | 160° 13 kt | 20 | 1013.5 | HZ |
| 19:25 UTC | 84.2 | 77 | 170° 9 kt | 19 | 1013.5 | HZ |
| 19:53 UTC | 84 | 77 | 170° 10 kt | 18 | 1013.5 | HZ |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Miami radar (KAMX), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:04 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:20 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | W Boca Raton | Palm Beach, FL | AT 1120 AM EDT A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC REPORTED 2 FUNNEL CLOUDS NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF GLADES ROAD AND THE FLORIDA TURNPIKE IN BOCA RATON. |
| 17:18 UTC | TSTM WND GST 62 | 1 E Hollywood | Broward, FL | AT 118 PM EDT...A TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED A WIND GUST OF 62 MPH. THIS GUST WAS ESTIMATED USING A HANDHELD ANEMOMETER. LOCATION OF REPORT WAS IN HOLLYWOOD BEACH NEAR HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD AND A1A. |
| 17:18 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 62 | 1 E Hollywood | Broward, FL | AT 118 PM EDT...A TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED A WIND GUST OF 62 MPH. THIS GUST WAS ESTIMATED USING A HANDHELD ANEMOMETER. LOCATION OF REPORT WAS IN HOLLYWOOD BEACH NEAR HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD AND A1A. |
| 18:05 UTC | TORNADO 0 | Golden Beach | Miami-Dade, FL | UPDATED AT 445 PM EDT. GOLDEN BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT REPORTED A WATERSPOUT THAT CAME ASHORE NEAR THE STRAND AT 400 OCEAN BOULEVARD AT 205 PM. HOUSES BEGAN TO BE AFFECTED IN THE 500-BLOCK OF OCEAN BOULEVARD AS THE TORNAD |
| 18:05 UTC | TORNADO | Golden Beach | Miami-Dade, FL | AT 300 PM EDT...GOLDEN BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT REPORTED A WATERSPOUT THAT CAME ASHORE NEAR THE STRAND IN THE 400-BLOCK OF OCEAN BOULEVARD AT 205 PM. DEBRIS FIELD WAS SPREAD ALONG A 6-BLOCK AREA. DAMAGE INCLUDED A GARAGE |
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 | 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.