Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2016

EF0 tornado, Port Everglades to Ft Lauderdale, Florida, March 19, 2016

From Port Everglades to Ft Lauderdale, this EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Broward County on March 19, 2016, touching down at 2:45 PM EDT and reaching 50 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 19, 2016
Touchdown
2:45 PM EDT (18:45 UTC)
Lifted
2:46 PM EDT (18:46 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Broward County
Touchdown point
26.114, -80.105
Lift-off point
26.117, -80.104
Record number
1603191245-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A line of storms moved into the Florida coast from the Gulf of Mexico during the late morning hours on March 19th. The combination of daytime heating, deep moisture, and a passing upper level system allowed the line to strengthen as it moved into South Florida. These storms produced a severe wind gust and dime size hail in Palm Beach county and tornado that briefly touched down along the beach in Broward County before moving offshore.

A tornado briefly touched down on the sand right along Fort Lauderdale Beach near the 600 block of Seabreeze Boulevard/A1A. The tornado flipped a few small boats and kayaks stored along the beach, beach chairs were flipped, and small signs blown down. No damage was observed to any nearby trees or buildings on the west side of A1A. The tornado became a waterspout as it moved off to the north-northeast into the Atlantic Ocean.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:37 UTC22:24 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchMFL

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:15 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

6.8 hours before the tornado, 38 km from the path. March 19, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2016-03-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 185 joules per kilogram, CIN -52, lifted condensation level 1139 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, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2016-03-19The 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 129 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
185 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-52 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1381 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1139 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
129 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
239 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
2.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

5.2 hours after it, 38 km from the path. March 20, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2016-03-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1258 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 1064 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, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2016-03-20The 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 34 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1258 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1609 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1064 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood (FLL), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:53 UTC8468180° 14 kt221012.5
17:53 UTC8072190° 15 kt241011.9RA
18:02 UTC7871200° 14 kt1011.5+RA
18:07 UTC7772190° 11 kt1011.5RA
18:14 UTC7772180° 12 kt181011.9RA
18:16 UTC7772180° 14 kt181011.5+RA
18:20 UTC7672180° 13 kt181011.9+TSRA BR
18:29 UTC757210° 7 kt1010.5-TSRA BR
18:40 UTC75.271.6260° 10 kt1010.8-RA
18:53 UTC7872180° 11 kt161010.5
19:27 UTC8173200° 5 kt1010.5
19:53 UTC8372210° 10 kt191010.2
20:39 UTC7869280° 13 kt1010.5

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

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:44 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
20:11 UTCTSTM WND GST 462 E SunriseBroward, FLMEASURED AT WEATHER BUG SITE AT BROWARD COUNTY SCHOOLS TECH AND SUPPORT FACILITY IN SUNRISE.
20:13 UTCTSTM WND GST 461 N Lauderdale LakesBroward, FLMEASURED AT WEATHER BUG SITE AT PARK LAKES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN LAUDERDALE LAKES.

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.