EF0 tornado, Gainesville West, Florida, May 20, 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

May 20, 2016

Touchdown

12:25 PM EDT (16:25 UTC)

Lifted

12:30 PM EDT (16:30 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

0.7 miles (1.1 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Alachua County

Touchdown point

29.649, -82.355

Lift-off point

29.650, -82.344

Record number

1605201025-01

A strong upper level trough moved across a moist and unstable air mass. Strong to severe storms initiated along the sea breezes. Bulk shear increased to around 30 knots and strong upper level diffluence was in place.

The University of Florida Wind Hazard Damage Assessment Team conducted a storm survey. Their findings were used by the NWS to define this event. A weak EF0 tornado tracked across the UF Campus which caused damage to mainly trees, other vegetation and minimal structural damage. No injuries were reported. The Student Recreation Center pool area of campus had the most damage which included a corrugated metal roof panels blown off, pool lounge chairs blown up against a fence, and a total of six trees down across campus. A broken window due to debris was reported at Sisler Hall. The trees damaged included pine and oak trees between 18-32 inches in diameter. A wind research time estimated winds of 64-85 mph.

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.

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 12:48 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.

Gainesville Regional (GNV), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:25 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

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.