Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2013

EF0 tornado, Saint Petersburg Beach, Florida, June 25, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Pinellas County on June 25, 2013, touching down at 9:00 PM EDT and reaching 5 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2,000 of property damage.

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 25, 2013
Touchdown
9:00 PM EDT (01:00 UTC)
Lifted
9:05 PM EDT (01:05 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
5 yards (5 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$2,000
County
Pinellas County
Touchdown point
27.719, -82.734
Lift-off point
27.719, -82.736
Record number
1306251900-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Deep moisture and weak flow aloft allowed thunderstorms to develop around Tampa Bay on sea breeze and outflow boundaries. A couple waterspouts developed in these storms, one of which moved onshore as a tornado.

A waterspout over Pass-A-Grill Channel came onshore as a tornado. The Pinellas County 911 Call Center reported power lines down on 44th Avenue. Times and locations were estimated using radar data and 911 call logs.

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
00:42 UTC01:15 UTCMarine WarningTBW
01:00 UTC02:00 UTCMarine WarningTBW

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 01:00 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

1.0 hours before the tornado, 33 km from the path. June 26, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2013-06-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 201 joules per kilogram, CIN -50, lifted condensation level 1924 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 2013-06-26The 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 -24 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 11 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
201 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-50 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2323 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1924 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-24 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-2 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.0 hours after it, 33 km from the path. June 26, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2013-06-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2009 joules per kilogram, CIN -17, lifted condensation level 676 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 2013-06-26The 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 3 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 7 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
2009 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-17 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2031 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
676 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
3 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
13 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

St Petersburg (SPG), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:53 UTC8974340° 7 kt1016.6
00:50 UTC8673.4210° 13 kt1017.6-TSRA
00:53 UTC8675220° 13 kt1017.6-TSRA
00:57 UTC8476260° 16 kt201017.6+TSRA
01:13 UTC7976290° 13 kt1017.6+TSRA BR
01:18 UTC7976300° 6 kt1018.3TSRA BR
01:35 UTC8074230° 4 kt1018.3TSRA
01:53 UTC8076230° 8 kt1018.6+TSRA BR
01:56 UTC7976240° 9 kt1018.6VCTS RA BR
02:06 UTC7976260° 9 kt1018.6-TSRA
02:21 UTC7976250° 5 kt1018.6VCTS -RA BR
02:29 UTC7976270° 4 kt1018.3-RA
02:53 UTC7976260° 5 kt1018.3

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

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 33 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:01 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
00:43 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD3 Se Pinellas ParkPinellas, FLNEAR 54 AV. NORTH AND 28 ST. NORTH. RELAYED BY FLORIDA STATE WATCH OFFICE.
00:49 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD3 Ne Saint PetersburgPinellas, FLNEAR 18 AV. NORTHEAST.
01:05 UTCHAIL 0.255 Se Pinellas ParkPinellas, FLTRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED PEA SIZE HAIL.

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 25, 2013

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 254:12 PM CDTEF0McHenry, ND1.820
June 257:59 PM CDTEF0Campbell, SD0.110
June 2511:25 PM CDTEF0Clay, MN7.0100

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.