EF0 tornado, Miramar to Port Everglades, Florida, February 16, 2016

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

February 16, 2016

Touchdown

7:34 AM EST (12:34 UTC)

Lifted

7:38 AM EST (12:38 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.9 miles (3.0 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Broward County

Touchdown point

26.110, -80.130

Lift-off point

26.096, -80.104

Record number

1602160634-01

63 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MFL, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 108 mph.

• Metal awning siding damage.
• tree appears weak and top heavy. blown to the east.
• blown to east from main branch. no other damage in immediate area.
• carport twisted. corner of roof lifted.

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

A strong squall line intensified well ahead of a cold front over the eastern Gulf of Mexico during the early morning hours of February 16th. The line produced straight line wind damage near Naples as it moved onshore, along with tornadoes in Glades and Collier counties. Three additional tornadoes developed across the east coast metro in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, as the squall line interacted with the southeasterly flow along the coast. In addition to the tornadoes, straight line wind gusts of 60 to 70 mph were reported across eastern Palm Beach and Broward counties, producing damage in Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Pembroke Pines, and Miramar. Small hail was also reported in Davie and Sunrise with a tornadic storm.

The tornado touched down just to the south of the intersection of South Post and Weston Roads at 705 am, knocking over a large tree and spreading significant tree limb debris into nearby car dealerships on the east side of the roadway. The tornado then crossed I-75 just south of SW 36th Street, knocking over trees in the field on the east side of the highway. Additional trees were uprooted and snapped as the track continued northeast near the intersection of SW 37th Street and SW 150th Avenue. More tree damaged occurred further east in the Davie/Fort Lauderdale KOA near the intersection of SW 37th Court and Boyscout Road. A row of power lines was knocked down along 130th Avenue just to the north of SW 36th Court, before the tornado crossed Flamingo Road, tearing a large limb off of a massive tree in Flamingo Gardens. Continuing further northeast, the tornado downed additional trees and power lines down along Canyon Maple Boulevard with shingle damage to roofs to home in the vicinity. Several large trees were then downed along West Lake Villa Circle before the tornado crossed Nob Hill Road. Additional trees were uprooted near Tree Tops and Westridge Parks on the east side of the roadway. Eyewitness reports in the vicinity also report airborne debris. The damage path ended around 718 AM with several large trees snapped and soffit damage to homes in the Escape At Arrowhead neighborhood along SW 24th Court and SW 81st Avenue.

The tornado touched down near the Mitchell Moore Aquatic Center just east of I-95 and north of NW 10th Street, then continued northeast to NW 14th street just west of North Dixie Highway where the strongest damage was observed, with severe roof damage to a home. The tornado then tracked northeast, crossing North Dixie Highway and damaging several horse stables on the east side of the road on the west side of the Pompano Beach Airpark. One horse in the stables sustained injuries. The tornado then moved across the western and northern portions of the airpark into the Pompano Beach Golf Course and the Citi Center, doing damage to trees across the property. The tornado crossed Federal Highway/US 1 near Copans Road, leading to additional damage in the Lighthouse Point area with many uprooted and broken trees, downed power lines, and minor roof damage. The track ended at NE 28th Avenue and NE 28th street less than a half mile from the beach.

Numerous trees and powerlines down in Port Everglades area, including a 20 inch diameter pine tree snapped at its top. A catamaran capsized on Lake Sylvia with the owner trapped inside who was later rescued by Fire Rescue. An additional boat also capsized in the Port Everglades area. Dozens of beach chairs along Fort Lauderdale Beach were also tossed around and into the Atlantic.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:24 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.

Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood (FLL), 5 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Miami radar (KAMX), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:32 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 2016 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

6 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.