Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2014

EF0 tornado, Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, March 6, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Pinellas County on March 6, 2014, touching down at 12:00 PM EST and reaching 10 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
March 6, 2014
Touchdown
12:00 PM EST (17:00 UTC)
Lifted
12:01 PM EST (17:01 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Pinellas County
Touchdown point
27.865, -82.850
Lift-off point
27.865, -82.849
Record number
1403061100-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong squall line developed ahead of a low pressure center and associated cold front over the Gulf of Mexico that moved onshore during the early afternoon of the 6th. The thunderstorms produced damaging wind gusts and two waterspouts that moved onshore as tornadoes.

A social media report was received of a waterspout moving onshore at Indian Shores. The tornado quickly dissipated without causing significant damage.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:29 UTC and running to 18:21 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:16 UTC16:45 UTCMarine WarningTBW
16:06 UTC17:00 UTCMarine WarningTBW
16:29 UTC18:21 UTCTornado WatchTBW
16:44 UTC17:45 UTCMarine WarningTBW
16:59 UTC18:00 UTCMarine WarningTBW
17:31 UTC18:30 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:27 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

5.0 hours before the tornado, 48 km from the path. March 6, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2014-03-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 68 joules per kilogram, CIN -114, lifted condensation level 631 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 2014-03-06The 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 236 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
68 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-114 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
631 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
236 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
292 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

7.0 hours after it, 48 km from the path. March 7, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2014-03-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 29 joules per kilogram, CIN -95, lifted condensation level 550 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 2014-03-07The 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 80 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
29 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-95 J/kg
Surface CAPE
328 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
550 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
55 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Saint Petersburg (PIE), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
15:03 UTC656440° 8 kt1013.2-TSRA BR
15:12 UTC64.464.450° 7 kt1013.5-RA BR
15:30 UTC646450° 9 kt1013.5TSRA BR
15:48 UTC64.464.440° 8 kt1013.5RA BR
15:53 UTC646460° 5 kt1013.5+RA BR
16:21 UTC646460° 8 kt1012.9VCTS RA BR
16:33 UTC646470° 9 kt1012.5VCTS RA BR
16:41 UTC656560° 8 kt1012.9+RA BR
16:53 UTC656560° 8 kt1012.5RA BR
17:00 UTC656560° 8 kt1012.5RA BR
17:08 UTC6570° 9 kt1012.2+RA
17:25 UTC63320° 17 kt291013.5+RA
17:32 UTC64280° 7 kt1013.2RA
17:35 UTC65 3 kt1013.2VCTS RA
17:37 UTC650° 0 kt1012.9VCTS -RA
17:53 UTC64130° 5 kt1012.2RA
18:53 UTC66130° 13 kt211008.1

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

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 48 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:59 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
17:00 UTCWATER SPOUT4 Wsw LargoPinellas, FLPUBLIC REPORT WITH PICTURE VIA SOCIAL MEDIA OF WATERSPOUT JUST OFF SHORE OF INDIAN ROCKS BEACH.
17:05 UTCTORNADO5 Sw LargoPinellas, FLPUBLIC REPORT WITH PICTURE VIA SOCIAL MEDIA OF TORNADIC WATERSPOUT MOVING ONSHORE AT INDIAN SHORES.
17:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Ssw ClearwaterPinellas, FLSEVERAL LARGE BRANCHES DOWN. FENCE AND SHED DAMAGED. LOCATION ESTIMATED BETWEEN LARGO AND BELLEAIR.
17:38 UTCTORNADO3 Wnw Tampa InternationHillsborough, FLPUBLIC REPORTS TORNADO TOUCHDOWN WITH FLYING DEBRIS NEAR HANA AVE. AND HANLEY RD.

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

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 March 6, 2014

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 612:38 PM ESTEF0Hillsborough, FL1.415
March 62:30 PM ESTEF0Palm Beach, FL0.350

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.