Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2014

EF0 tornado, Punta Rassa, Florida, June 27, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 1.2 miles across Lee County on June 27, 2014, touching down at 3:36 PM EDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1,000 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 27, 2014
Touchdown
3:36 PM EDT (19:36 UTC)
Lifted
3:39 PM EDT (19:39 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
1.2 miles (2.0 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$1,000
County
Lee County
Touchdown point
26.549, -82.021
Lift-off point
26.533, -82.011
Record number
1406271336-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A brief EF-0 tornado touched down in Lee County causing minor roof damage to a home. The tornado then moved into the water and continued as a waterspout for a few minutes before dissipating.

A brief EF-0 tornado touched down in Lee County causing minor roof damage to a home. The tornado then moved into the water and continued as a waterspout for a few minutes before dissipating.||Damage to the home was consistent with EF-0 damage - namely a few roof shingles ripped off. Palm fronds still present on the palm trees. Winds estimated between 45-55 mph.

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
02:14 UTC04:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryTBW
20:42 UTC21:45 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 16:31 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), 12:00Z

7.6 hours before the tornado, 135 km from the path. June 27, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2014-06-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1515 joules per kilogram, CIN -37, lifted condensation level 907 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 2014-06-27The 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 41 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 10 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
1515 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-37 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1220 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
907 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
38 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.4 hours after it, 135 km from the path. June 28, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2014-06-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 292 joules per kilogram, CIN -139, lifted condensation level 1216 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 2014-06-28The 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 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
292 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-139 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1040 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1216 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
66 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

Fort Myers/Page Field (FMY), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:53 UTC917110° 5 kt1018.3
18:43 UTC91700° 0 kt1017.9VCTS
18:53 UTC927140° 6 kt1017.6VCTS
19:16 UTC9371 4 kt1017.3
19:33 UTC887420° 16 kt1016.9VCTS
19:45 UTC857430° 5 kt1017.3-TSRA
19:53 UTC847440° 10 kt1018.3-TSRA
20:28 UTC787290° 17 kt301020.3-TSRA
20:43 UTC7471150° 14 kt211020VCTS
20:48 UTC73.471.6150° 13 kt211020-TSRA
20:53 UTC7471180° 12 kt211019.6-TSRA
21:13 UTC7471210° 6 kt1019.3VCTS -RA

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

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 135 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:34 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 27, 2014

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 2711:07 AM CDTEF0Liberty, TX0.020$15,000
June 2711:24 AM CDTEF0Liberty, TX0.025
June 271:46 PM CDTEF0Jefferson Davis Parish, LA4.6300$10,000
June 273:03 PM CDTEF1Dunn, WI7.0100$1.2 million
June 272:18 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO2.1100
June 274:40 PM MDTEF0Sherman, KS1.025
June 275:44 PM CDTEF0Thomas, KS2.025

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.