Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2013

EF0 tornado, West Lake, Florida, July 31, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Hamilton County on July 31, 2013, touching down at 7:35 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
July 31, 2013
Touchdown
7:35 PM EDT (23:35 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hamilton County
Touchdown point
30.420, -83.180
Lift-off point
30.420, -83.180
Record number
1307311735-01

What the Weather Service recorded

The combination of a passing upper level trough combined with active sea breezes, surface instability and high moisture content spawned scattered strong storms which produced locally heavy rainfall.

A tornado touchdown was reported along County Road 141 just northwest of the Suwannee River State Park. No damage was reported.

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

The warnings

4 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:31 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:31 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningJAX

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 19:38 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.

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 12:00Z

11.6 hours before the tornado, 107 km from the path. July 31, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2013-07-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1510 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 567 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 12:00Z on 2013-07-31The 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 -40 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 6 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1510 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
869 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
567 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-40 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-31 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), 00:00Z

0.4 hours after it, 107 km from the path. August 1, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2013-08-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1104 joules per kilogram, CIN -11, lifted condensation level 600 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, Tallahassee Rgnl, FL at 00:00Z on 2013-08-01The 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 22 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1104 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1311 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
600 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
27 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Valdosta Regional (VLD), 41 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:43 UTC84.273.410° 10 kt181017.9TS
21:53 UTC817210° 18 kt241018.3-TSRA
22:53 UTC777150° 5 kt1017.9-TSRA
23:53 UTC7772180° 5 kt1017.9-RA
00:53 UTC76730° 0 kt1017.3

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

The radar

The Moody AFB radar (KVAX), 55 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:34 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
21:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 31 Sse Lake CityColumbia, FLWTEV RELAYED A PUBLIC REPORT OF AN ESTIMATED RAINFALL TOTAL OF 3 INCHES IN LAKE CITY FROM HEAVY THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON. A STORM SPOTTER ALSO REPORTED ANKLE DEEP WATER NEAR THE VETERANS ADMINISTRATION HOSPITAL IN LA
23:35 UTCTORNADO1 Nnw Suwannee River StHamilton, FLVOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER WITH HAMILTON COUNTY REPORTED A TORNADO ON THE GROUND ALONG COUNTY ROAD 141 JUST NORTHWEST OF THE SUWANNEE RIVER STATE PARK.

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

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.