Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2013

EF0 tornado, South Palm Beach, Florida, April 30, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Palm Beach County on April 30, 2013, touching down at 1:56 PM EDT and reaching 10 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
April 30, 2013
Touchdown
1:56 PM EDT (17:56 UTC)
Lifted
1:57 PM EDT (17:57 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Palm Beach County
Touchdown point
26.581, -80.038
Lift-off point
26.580, -80.040
Record number
1304301156-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A broad upper level trough covered the eastern U.S. with abundant tropical moisture across South Florida resulting in scattered thunderstorms along the southeast coast.

A waterspout moved onshore and was caught on video with minor roof damage and broken windows reported in the vicinity of La Coquille Villas along with downed trees on both sides of Highway A1A.

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)ExpiredProductOffice
16:54 UTC18:00 UTCMarine WarningMFL
17:54 UTC19:00 UTCMarine WarningMFL

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. The outlook in force was issued at 16:31 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

5.9 hours before the tornado, 88 km from the path. April 30, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2013-04-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1369 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 780 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2013-04-30The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 50 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1369 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1341 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
780 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
50 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
77 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

6.1 hours after it, 88 km from the path. May 1, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2013-05-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 773 joules per kilogram, CIN -34, lifted condensation level 948 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2013-05-01The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 60 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
773 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-34 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1524 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
948 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
60 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
93 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

West Palm Beach (DJT), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:27 UTC78.869.8150° 12 kt1015.6-TSRA
16:34 UTC73.469.8130° 4 kt1015.6+TSRA
16:41 UTC73.469.8210° 4 kt1015.6+TSRA BR
16:45 UTC71.669.8240° 4 kt1015.6+TSRA BR
16:53 UTC726980° 7 kt1015.2+TSRA BR
17:05 UTC73.471.670° 10 kt171015.2-TSRA BR
17:11 UTC73.471.670° 12 kt171014.9-RA BR
17:20 UTC73.471.670° 13 kt1015.2-TSRA BR
17:51 UTC73.471.680° 10 kt1014.9TSRA BR
17:53 UTC747190° 11 kt1014.9TSRA BR
18:05 UTC73.471.6110° 13 kt1015.2TSRA BR
18:11 UTC71.669.8130° 17 kt211015.2+TSRA BR
18:26 UTC69.868150° 11 kt211015.2+TSRA BR
18:48 UTC69.866.290° 8 kt1015.2-RA BR
18:53 UTC6967100° 9 kt1015.6-RA BR
19:53 UTC736860° 5 kt1014.9

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:54 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 5.751 W Lake WorthPalm Beach, FLFELL IN 1 HOUR.

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 30, 2013

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 305:18 PM CDTEF0Lubbock, TX0.110

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.