Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2013
EF0 tornado, Indianola to Bonaventure, Florida, April 14, 2013
From Indianola to Bonaventure, this EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Brevard County on April 14, 2013, touching down at 8:42 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
- April 14, 2013
- Touchdown
- 8:42 PM EDT (00:42 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:43 PM EDT (00:43 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.5 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Brevard County
- Touchdown point
- 28.377, -80.739
- Lift-off point
- 28.381, -80.736
- Record number
- 1304141842-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A broken line of severe convection developed across interior central Florida as the west coast sea breeze pushed inland from the Gulf of Mexico. Discrete cells within the line became severe, with several becoming supercells as they moved east toward the coast. Two different supercells each produced a short-track EF0 tornado in Brevard County, while hail up to the size of quarters fell in Altamonte Springs.
An EF0 tornado with winds estimated between 70 and 80 mph touched down near the Intersection of U.S. 1 and Dixon Boulevard in Cocoa and travelled northeast to the Indian River where it became a waterspout. The tornado produced minor damage to the roofs and outbuilding of several businesses along U.S. 1, with power lines also downed. Numerous trees were downed along Dixon Boulevard and Indian River Drive. DI27; DOD2; EXP, DI8; DOD2; EXP.
An EF0 tornado with winds estimated at 75 to 85 mph, affected primarily the Charolais Estates and Colfax Landing subdivisions in Viera/Rockledge. The damage damage was embedded within a larger swath of strong straight-line winds which affected areas extending farther to the west and east. Several homes experienced damage to roof tiles and soffits. Concrete roof tiles were carried downstream and penetrated several windows. Other metal debris was carried downstream and a fence was blown down. Numerous pool screen enclosures totally collapsed. DI2; DOD1; UB.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
37 minutes of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:05 UTC, 37 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:52 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:52 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | MLB |
| 18:41 UTC | 20:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | MLB |
| 22:43 UTC | 23:24 UTC | Tornado Warning | MLB |
| 00:05 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | MLB |
| 00:31 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | MLB |
| 00:53 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MLB |
| 01:02 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | MLB |
| 01:21 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MLB |
| 01:55 UTC | 04:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | MLB |
| 02:33 UTC | 03:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MLB |
| 02:53 UTC | 05:00 UTC | Flood Warning | 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 19:58 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 radar
The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 31 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:41 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01:25 UTC | TSTM WND GST 56 | 3 Sse Cocoa | Brevard, FL | CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION TOWER 9404 MEASURED A 49 KNOT / 56 MPH GUST AT 925PM LOCAL. |
| 02:00 UTC | FLOOD | 5 Sw Patrick Airforce B | Brevard, FL | SAINT DUNSTON LANE REPORTED FLOODED AND IMPASSABLE IN THE SHERWOOD PARK NEIGHBORHOOD NORTH OF WICKHAM PARK. |
| 02:15 UTC | TSTM WND GST 41 | 5 Ne Port Canaveral | Brevard, FL | USAF 54 FT TOWER NUMBER 3 MEASURED A WIND GUST OF 36 KT/41 MPH. |
| 02:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Ssw Palm Bay | Brevard, FL | ONE WINDOW BLOWN OUT AND LAWN FURNITURE, TRASH CANS, AND GRILL BLOWN AROUND YARD ON POMELLO AVE. POSSIBLE TORNADO. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. REPORT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. |
| 03:00 UTC | FLOOD | Wnw Indialantic | Brevard, FL | HWY A1A REPORTED FLOODED AND IMPASSABLE BETWEEN 4TH AND 5TH AVE/MELBOURNE CAUSEWAY. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 14, 2013
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.