Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2015

EF0 tornado, (Pbi)Palm Beach Arpt to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, August 3, 2015

From (Pbi)Palm Beach Arpt to Palm Beach Gardens, this EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Palm Beach County on August 3, 2015, touching down at 4:05 PM EDT and reaching 1 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
August 3, 2015
Touchdown
4:05 PM EDT (20:05 UTC)
Lifted
4:07 PM EDT (20:07 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
1 yards (1 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Palm Beach County
Touchdown point
26.784, -80.146
Lift-off point
26.785, -80.146
Record number
1508031405-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Moist and unstable southerly flow on the south side of a weak low moving across Northern Florida led to numerous afternoon showers and storms across South Florida, especially across Palm Beach County. Several funnel clouds and two tornadoes were reported along with straight line wind damage.

EF-0 tornado touched down touched down along lake in Village Walk Subdivision then moved northeast, crossing Forest Hill Blvd and the Florida Turnpike before moving into Okeeheelee Park and dissipating. Video showed touchdown in Village Walk with no known damage and discontinuous damage path across roads into park. Most of damage from tornado occurred in park with downed trees and large branches down as well as damaged soccer goals, a judge's stand, and a blown power transformer. A roof was also blown off in the park. Reports and video received via broadcast media and public.

Video and eyewitness reports show brief tornado touchdown over landfill west of Florida Turnpike near Dyer Park. No reported damage. Duration and location estimated from video and reports.

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

The warnings

11 minutes of warning. NWS MFL issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:54 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:12 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:54 UTC20:12 UTCTornado WarningMFL

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 20:41 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

8.1 hours before the tornado, 108 km from the path. August 3, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2015-08-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1163 joules per kilogram, CIN -31, lifted condensation level 902 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2015-08-03The 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 -36 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 9 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
1163 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-31 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1575 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
902 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-36 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-19 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

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

3.9 hours after it, 108 km from the path. August 4, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2015-08-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 237 joules per kilogram, CIN -88, lifted condensation level 1150 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2015-08-04The 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 11 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 9 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
237 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-88 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1101 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1150 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
11 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 133 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:04 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
19:00 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 W Delray BeachPalm Beach, FLPHOTOS OF FUNNEL CLOUD RECEIVED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA.
19:29 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD8 W Boynton BeachPalm Beach, FLPHOTOS OF FUNNEL CLOUD RECEIVED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA.
19:56 UTCTORNADO2 Nnw Florida GardensPalm Beach, FLVIDEO SHOWS TORNADO PASSING THROUGH VILLAGE WALK SUBDIVISION. TORNADO MOVED NORTH-NORTHEASTWARD TO WHERE VIDEO WAS RECEIVED FROM OKEEHEELEE PARK OF DAMAGE CONSISTING OF DOWNED TREES AND LARGE BRANCHES AS WELL AS ROOF BLO
20:00 UTCTORNADO3 N Florida GardensPalm Beach, FLVIDEO FROM OKEEHEELEE PARK OF DAMAGE CONSISTING OF DOWNED TREES AND LARGE BRANCHES AS WELL AS ROOF BLOWN OFF DEROOFING. DAMAGE CONSISTENT WITH EF-0 TORNADO.
20:05 UTCTORNADO4 Wsw Riviera BeachPalm Beach, FLVIDEO...PHOTOS...AND EYEWITNESS REPORT INDICATE TORNADO TOUCHDOWN WEST OF DYER PARK IN THE VICINITY OF THE LANDFILL WEST OF THE FLORIDA TURNPIKE. NO REPORTED DAMAGE
20:15 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDRiviera BeachPalm Beach, FLPHOTOS RECEIVED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA OF SMALL FUNNEL CLOUDS NEAR RIVIERA BEACH.
20:35 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Nnw Juno BeachPalm Beach, FLGAS STATION CANOPY BLOWN OFF AT INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY 1 AND JUNO OCEAN WALK.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 3, 2015

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 33:56 PM EDTEF0Palm Beach, FL0.110

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.