EF0 tornado, Wewahatee, Florida, March 29, 2014

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

March 29, 2014

Touchdown

2:20 PM EDT (18:20 UTC)

Lifted

2:23 PM EDT (18:23 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.4 miles (3.9 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Orange County

Touchdown point

28.389, -81.133

Lift-off point

28.375, -81.170

Record number

1403291220-01

14 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MLB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• Near the western edge of wind damage. Minor damage on newly planted trees. All trees are new growth trees.
• Southern edge of minor wind damage on Kirby Smith Road. Small debris in roadway.
• Northern extent of damage along Kirby Smith Road. Large hardwood tree broken along trunk.
• Fallen Softwood Tree inside Moss Park near Pavilion 4. Root base did not seem very well developed.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A squall line, preceding a cold front, crossed east-central Florida during the afternoon. A bow echo along the leading edge of the squall line moved rapidly east across southern Orange County. A swath of winds 45-60 mph accompanied the bow echo and produced tree damage along its path. A book-end vortex rapidly evolved at the northern end of the echo, and resulted in an EF-0 tornado within the corridor of straight-line winds. The squall line also produced minor wind damage in Brevard County. Large hail fell in the Sanford area.

A book-end vortex rapidly developed at the northern edge of a bow echo. A NWS Storm Survey confirmed an EF-0 tornado, with estimated ground-level winds of 65-75 mph. The tornado developed at the east edge of Lake Mary Jane (possibly beginning as a waterspout over the lake) and was embedded within a larger region of strong straight-line winds. The tornado impacted three blocks of homes in the Isle of Pines subdivision, then continued into a rural, unpopulated area farther east/northeast. While the homes sustained little direct structural damage from the winds, falling trees damaged several homes and vehicles along the tornado path. Winds at tree top level (50-100 feet above ground level) were estimated at 80-90 mph. Velocity data from the TMCO Orlando International Airport TDWR radar showed winds up of 100 mph at 300 feet above ground level. DI28 DOD 3 LB; DI2 DOD 1 EXP.

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

50 minutes of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:30 UTC, 50 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:44 UTC and running to 19:23 UTC.

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 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 15:58 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 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.

Orlando International (MCO), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 57 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:19 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

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

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.