Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2013

EF0 tornado, Feather Sound to Pinellas Park, Florida, June 24, 2013

From Feather Sound to Pinellas Park, this EF0 tornado ran 1.9 miles across Pinellas County on June 24, 2013, touching down at 8:24 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
June 24, 2013
Touchdown
8:24 PM EDT (00:24 UTC)
Lifted
8:40 PM EDT (00:40 UTC)
On the ground
16 minutes
Path length
1.9 miles (3.1 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Pinellas County
Touchdown point
27.867, -82.614
Lift-off point
27.852, -82.640
Record number
1306241824-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Southwest flow fed sea breeze storms moving into the Tampa Bay area late in the afternoon. One of these storms produced a waterspout that came onshore as a tornado. Additionally, a couple lightning strikes caused fires.

A waterspout that developed over the Tampa Bay near the west end of the Gandy Bridge came onshore as a tornado near the Weedon Island Power Plant. The 911 Call Center reported multiple trees down, a dock pushed against a house, and a lanai damaged on 87th Avenue in Saint Petersburg.

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

The warnings

2 minutes of warning. NWS TBW issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:22 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:22 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningTBW
04:16 UTC05:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryTBW

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 19:55 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.

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 00:00Z

0.4 hours before the tornado, 28 km from the path. June 25, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2013-06-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 123 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 1957 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, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2013-06-25The 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 -26 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 3 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
123 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1173 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1957 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-46 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 12:00Z

11.6 hours after it, 28 km from the path. June 25, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2013-06-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 646 joules per kilogram, CIN -44, lifted condensation level 960 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, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2013-06-25The 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 -42 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 5 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
646 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-44 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1462 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
960 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-42 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-1 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Saint Petersburg (PIE), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:53 UTC8874340° 10 kt1018.3
23:53 UTC8673320° 10 kt1018.6
00:17 UTC84.273.4330° 10 kt1018.3VCTS
00:48 UTC80.673.4 6 kt221019.3+TSRA
00:53 UTC7974140° 5 kt151019.6+TSRA
01:02 UTC7773.40° 0 kt1019+TSRA BR
01:17 UTC78.873.4290° 8 kt1020TSRA
01:32 UTC7773.4310° 9 kt1020+TSRA BR
01:41 UTC7773.4330° 4 kt1019.3+TSRA BR
01:53 UTC7774310° 5 kt1019.6VCTS -RA BR
02:10 UTC78.875.2350° 5 kt1019.6VCTS -RA

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

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 28 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:22 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
00:35 UTCTORNADO4 E Pinellas ParkPinellas, FLMULTIPLE TREES DOWN...DOCK AGAINST HOUSE...AND LANAI DAMAGED ON 87TH AVENUE.
01:28 UTCLIGHTNING4 Sse ClearwaterPinellas, FLLIGHTNING CAUSED MINOR DAMAGE TO A SHED, ON BELCHER ROAD IN LARGO.
01:39 UTCLIGHTNING2 N ClearwaterPinellas, FLLIGHTNING STARTED A SMALL FIRE IN A HOUSE ON PINE PLACE IN CLEARWATER. RELAYED BY STATE WATCH OFFICE.

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 June 24, 2013

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 243:08 PM CDTEF1Muscatine, IA6.51001$500,000
June 244:00 PM CDTEF1Henry, IL6.250$50,000
June 244:32 PM CDTEF0Lee, IL2.8100$10,000
June 244:33 PM CDTEF0Bureau, IL0.675$10,000

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.