Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2016

EF2 tornado, Matlacha to Punta Rassa, Florida, January 9, 2016

From Matlacha to Punta Rassa, this EF2 tornado ran 3.4 miles across Lee County on January 9, 2016, touching down at 6:45 PM EST and reaching 182 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 3, and did $2.0 million 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 mph

    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 mphthis tornado

    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
EF2
Date
January 9, 2016
Touchdown
6:45 PM EST (23:45 UTC)
Lifted
6:52 PM EST (23:52 UTC)
On the ground
7 minutes
Path length
3.4 miles (5.4 km)
Path width
182 yards (166 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
3
Property damage
$2.0 million
County
Lee County
Touchdown point
26.570, -82.037
Lift-off point
26.575, -81.983
Record number
1601091745-01

The damage survey

39 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TBW, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 132 mph.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

A band of showers and thunderstorms moved across southwest Florida ahead of a cold front. One of these storms produced an EF-2 tornado and severe wind gusts in Lee county.

NWS Storm Survey revealed EF-2 tornado damage in the western sections of Cape Coral. The tornado damaged 178 structures in total. One home was completely destroyed while 14 sustained major damage and another 163 sustained minor damage. The minor damage mainly consisted of roof damage and destroyed pool cages. Over 100 power poles were knocked down along the tornado's path along with many trees. The tornado injured three people while it was on the ground for about 7 minutes.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:19 UTC14:00 UTCDense Fog AdvisoryTBW
23:50 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningTBW
00:15 UTC00:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTBW
00:32 UTC01:00 UTCTornado 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 20:03 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

11.8 hours before the tornado, 132 km from the path. January 9, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2016-01-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 45 joules per kilogram, CIN -162, lifted condensation level 822 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 2016-01-09The 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 179 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
45 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-162 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
822 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
179 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
261 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.2 hours after it, 132 km from the path. January 10, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2016-01-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 65 joules per kilogram, CIN -89, lifted condensation level 841 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 2016-01-10The 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 176 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
65 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-89 J/kg
Surface CAPE
149 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
841 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
176 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
257 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fort Myers/Page Field (FMY), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:53 UTC7670180° 7 kt1009.8
22:50 UTC7769.8180° 9 kt1009.8VCTS
22:53 UTC7770180° 11 kt1009.8VCTS
23:05 UTC7770180° 11 kt1009.5
23:34 UTC7670180° 8 kt1010.2VCTS -RA
23:42 UTC7671200° 7 kt1010.5-TSRA
23:53 UTC7671190° 6 kt1010.5-TSRA
00:11 UTC6866310° 14 kt1011.5+TSRA BR
00:18 UTC6866250° 13 kt1012.2+TSRA BR
00:38 UTC6867290° 12 kt191011.9+TSRA BR
00:47 UTC6866.2250° 7 kt1011.9TSRA BR
00:53 UTC6867280° 4 kt1011.5-TSRA BR
01:14 UTC6868210° 4 kt1011.9RA BR
01:18 UTC6867190° 5 kt1011.9TSRA BR
01:31 UTC6767200° 7 kt1012.2TSRA BR
01:39 UTC6866240° 7 kt1012.2VCTS -RA BR

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

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 132 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:45 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
23:45 UTCTORNADOSw Cape CoralLee, FL*** 3 INJ *** EMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTED MULTIPLE TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN AS WELL AS STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO SEVERAL HOMES. LOCATED IN SW CAPE CORAL NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF CHIQUITA BLVD S AND BEACH PKWY W TO NEAR MOHWA
23:45 UTCTORNADOSw Cape CoralLee, FLEMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTED MULTIPLE TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN AS WELL AS STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO SEVERAL HOMES. LOCATED IN SW CAPE CORAL NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF CHIQUITA BLVD S AND BEACH PKWY W TO NEAR MOHWAK PKWY AND SKY
23:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 W Cape CoralLee, FLSPOTTER REPORTS SNAPPED POWER POLES AND SMALL TREES DOWN.
00:35 UTCTSTM WND GST 683 Nnw Fort Myers BeachLee, FLHOME WEATHER STATION MEASURED 68 MPH WIND GUST.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

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.