Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2013

EF0 tornado, Boca Raton, Florida, May 2, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Palm Beach County on May 2, 2013, touching down at 1:25 PM EDT and reaching 50 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
May 2, 2013
Touchdown
1:25 PM EDT (17:25 UTC)
Lifted
1:27 PM EDT (17:27 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Palm Beach County
Touchdown point
26.375, -80.083
Lift-off point
26.380, -80.076
Record number
1305021125-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level low pressure area over the northeast Gulf of Mexico and a surface trough across central Florida combined to produce numerous strong to severe thunderstorms over portions of southeast Florida.

An EF0 tornado touched down near North Dixie Highway and NE 28th St. in northeastern sections of Boca Raton and traveled to near Federal Highway and NE 32nd St. Maximum winds were estimated at 70 mph with damage consisting primarily of downed trees, fences and power lines, with a piece of metal-covered foam roof blown through a house window and a damaged store sign.

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
15:49 UTC17:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryMFL
16:29 UTC18:30 UTCFlood AdvisoryMFL
17:06 UTC22:50 UTCFlash Flood WarningMFL
17:21 UTC17:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMFL
19:01 UTC21:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryMFL
19:56 UTC20:55 UTCFlood AdvisoryMFL
21:59 UTC00:50 UTCFlood AdvisoryMFL
22:57 UTC02:28 UTCFlood AdvisoryMFL

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 16:16 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

5.4 hours before the tornado, 65 km from the path. May 2, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2013-05-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 871 joules per kilogram, CIN -30, lifted condensation level 800 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 2013-05-02The 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 5 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 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
871 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-30 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1069 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
800 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
2 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
5 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
27 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

6.6 hours after it, 65 km from the path. May 3, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2013-05-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 69 joules per kilogram, CIN -89, lifted condensation level 719 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 2013-05-03The 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 -135 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
69 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-89 J/kg
Surface CAPE
65 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
719 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-135 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-121 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Boca Raton Airport (BCT), 3 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
15:55 UTC 1013.2RA
16:50 UTC 1012.5
17:22 UTC 261012.5+RA BR
17:50 UTC33.8 1012.9

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

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 92 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:23 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
16:54 UTCFLOOD2 W Delray BeachPalm Beach, FLDELRAY BEACH PD REPORTED WATER OVER THE ROAD AT LINTON BLVD AND MILITARY TRAIL AND AT LINTON BLVD AND CONGRESS AVE.
17:25 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD1 Ssw Highland BeachPalm Beach, FLBOCA RATON POLICE DEPARTMENT REPORTED A POSSIBLE TORNADO IN THE 3000 BLOCK OF N FEDERAL HIGHWAY.
17:25 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Ne Boca RatonPalm Beach, FLPOWER LINES REPORTED DOWN IN THE 2800 BLOCK OF N DIXIE HIGHWAY... REPORT OBTAINED FROM BOCA RATON LAW ENFORCEMENT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA.
17:25 UTCTORNADO2 Ne Boca RatonPalm Beach, FLSURVEY INDICATED AN EF0 TORNADO IN NORTHEASTERN SECTIONS OF BOCA RATON FROM NEAR NORTH DIXIE HIGHWAY AND NE 28 ST TO NEAR FEDERAL HIGHWAY AND NE 32 ST. MAX WINDS ESTIMATED AROUND 70 MPH WITH A PATH LENGTH OF 0.4 MILES AN
17:55 UTCFLOODDelray BeachPalm Beach, FLDELRAY BEACH PD REPORTS SEVERE FLOODING IN THE AREAS OF EASTBOUND I-95 ON 10TH STREET. ALSO... FLOODING AT LINTON AND CONGRESS... 500 S CONGRESS... AND LINTON AND MILITARY TRAIL
17:55 UTCFLASH FLOODDelray BeachPalm Beach, FLDELRAY BEACH PD REPORTS SEVERE FLOODING IN THE AREAS OF EASTBOUND I-95 ON 10TH STREET. ALSO... FLOODING AT LINTON AND CONGRESS... 500 S CONGRESS... AND LINTON AND MILITARY TRAIL
20:13 UTCTSTM WND DMGDania BeachBroward, FLPOWERLINES DOWN.

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.