EF0 tornado, Westgate to Golf, Florida, June 24, 2012

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

June 24, 2012

Touchdown

1:25 PM EDT (17:25 UTC)

Lifted

1:27 PM EDT (17:27 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.2 miles (1.9 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Palm Beach County

Touchdown point

26.697, -80.068

Lift-off point

26.715, -80.062

Record number

1206241125-01

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.

First report of damage was to a carport south of Okeechobee Boulevard and east of I-95. The tornado traveled through a warehouse district just south of Okeechobee Boulevard and east of Australian Avenue, damaging roofs and doors to a warehouse building. The tornado then crossed Okeechobee Boulevard and traveled between Australian and Tamarind Avenues, damaging trees and knocking down a large metal gate at the West Palm Beach train station. A railroad crossing arm was broken at Tamarind Avenue and Banyan Boulevard. Discontinuous path of 1.2 miles and tornado width of probably no more than 30 yards. Maximum winds were likely in the upper end of EF0 scale (75-85 mph), with most areas along the path probably experiencing low end EF0 winds (65-75 mph).

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

28 minutes of warning. NWS MFL issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:57 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:52 UTC and running to 23:58 UTC.

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 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 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.

The Miami radar (KAMX), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:27 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

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

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

21 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.