EF0 tornado, Micco to Grant, Florida, September 13, 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

September 13, 2016

Touchdown

1:51 PM EDT (17:51 UTC)

Lifted

1:59 PM EDT (17:59 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

3.5 miles (5.6 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$40,000

County

Brevard County

Touchdown point

27.863, -80.549

Lift-off point

27.913, -80.544

Record number

1609131151-01

A tropical disturbance, with a well-defined surface circulation, moved onshore near Vero Beach during the early morning hours, then lifted northward along the coast to Volusia County (and beyond) through the evening. By late evening, the system was upgraded to Tropical Storm Julia, as it approached Jacksonville. A rainband associated with the system spawned an EF-0 tornado in southern Brevard County during the early afternoon, resulting in damage to a few residences. Other passing rainbands, produced strong wind gusts along the coast of Brevard and Volusia Counties, one of which resulted in damage to a home in Edgewater. A funnel cloud was also sighted in Lake County.

An eyewitness report documented the onset of the tornado within the St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park, south of Micco Road and west of the town of Micco, in far southern Brevard County. Based on results from a NWS damage survey and other eyewitness reports (including photographs), the tornado moved in a northerly direction for approximately 3.5 miles before lifting south of Grant Road. The tornado was rated as an EF-0, with maximum winds estimated at 75-85 mph.||The discontinuous damage path occurred within a mostly rural area within the town of Grant-Valkaria, with damage to a two block area that included Orchid Tree Drive, Cottonwood Drive and Crepe Myrtle Drive. An RV at the south end of Cottonwood Drive was toppled onto its side and a large mango tree was uprooted. Farther north, toward the middle of Orchid Tree Drive, a single family home had a large patio enclosure destroyed. The patio was connected securely to the home, resulting in a large portion of the home's roof also being removed. Debris was carried downstream over 100 yards in a northwest direction. A few additional homes nearby experienced minor soft and shingle damage. Numerous large tree branches were downed or damaged throughout the neighborhood. DI2, DOD4 LB; DI3, DOD5 LB; DI27, DOD2, EXP.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:50 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:15 UTC.

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 16:29 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.

Melbourne Regional (MLB), 26 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 27 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:52 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.