Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2013

EF0 tornado, Belle Glade, Florida, June 6, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Palm Beach County on June 6, 2013, touching down at 3:18 AM EDT and reaching 25 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 6, 2013
Touchdown
3:18 AM EDT (07:18 UTC)
Lifted
3:20 AM EDT (07:20 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Palm Beach County
Touchdown point
26.673, -80.671
Lift-off point
26.682, -80.672
Record number
1306060118-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Tropical Storm Andrea moving across the northeast Gulf of Mexico produced outer rain bands that moved through South Florida resulting in scattered severe thunderstorms.

An EF0 tornado moved across Belle Glade with reports of trees down and damage to an awning near 1000 S. Main St. and several power lines down near 400 Martin Luther King Blvd.

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

The warnings

5 minutes of warning. NWS MFL issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:13 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
07:13 UTC07:45 UTCTornado WarningMFL
07:49 UTC15:00 UTCTornado WatchMFL
10:21 UTC10:45 UTCTornado WarningMFL
10:39 UTC11:15 UTCTornado WarningMFL
10:59 UTC11:30 UTCTornado WarningMFL
12:00 UTC12:30 UTCTornado WarningMFL
12:28 UTC13:00 UTCTornado WarningMFL
15:05 UTC22:44 UTCTornado WatchMFL

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 06:28 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), 00:00Z

7.3 hours before the tornado, 103 km from the path. June 6, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2013-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1865 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 618 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2013-06-06The 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 90 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1865 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2662 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
618 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
90 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
219 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
3.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 12:00Z

4.7 hours after it, 103 km from the path. June 6, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2013-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1826 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 668 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 2013-06-06The 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 183 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1826 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2605 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
668 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
183 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
216 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
6.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 121 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:17 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
07:20 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDBelle GladePalm Beach, FLEMERGENCY MANAGEMENT RECEIVED REPORTS OF FUNNEL CLOUD ON SOUTH SIDE OF BELLE GLADE. NUMEROUS POWERLINES DOWN THROUGHOUT THE CITY FROM POSSIBLE TORNADO.
07:20 UTCTSTM WND DMGBelle GladePalm Beach, FLEMERGENCY MANAGEMENT RECEIVED REPORTS OF FUNNEL CLOUD ON SOUTH SIDE OF BELLE GLADE. NUMEROUS POWERLINES DOWN THROUGHOUT THE CITY FROM POSSIBLE TORNADO.
07:20 UTCTORNADOBelle GladePalm Beach, FLEMERGENCY MANAGEMENT RECEIVED REPORTS OF NUMEROUS POWERLINES DOWN THROUGHOUT THE CITY FROM POSSIBLE TORNADO.

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 6, 2013

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 62:47 AM EDTEF0Manatee, FL1.550$50,000
June 63:27 AM EDTEF0Hillsborough, FL9.850$36,000
June 66:45 AM EDTEF1Palm Beach, FL2.01001
June 67:57 AM EDTEF0Broward, FL20.725
June 610:03 AM EDTEF0Pinellas, FL1.950$20,000
June 611:13 AM EDTEF0Sarasota, FL1.650$10,000
June 62:05 PM EDTEF0Lee, FL0.330
June 64:48 PM EDTEF1Duval, FL18.9704
June 61:22 AM EDTEF0Brunswick, NC0.120$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.