Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2017

EF0 tornado, Tangelo Park, Florida, July 7, 2017

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Orange County on July 7, 2017, touching down at 8:00 PM EDT and reaching 15 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
July 7, 2017
Touchdown
8:00 PM EDT (00:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
15 yards (14 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Orange County
Touchdown point
28.392, -81.340
Lift-off point
28.392, -81.340
Record number
1707071800-01

What the Weather Service recorded

The Atlantic and Gulf coast sea breeze boundaries collided from south-central Orange County to western Osceola County during the early evening. During the initial collision and prior to shower and thunderstorm development, a brief tornado was observed from the Orlando International Airport tower and photographed by several people at the airport. Showers and thunderstorms then rapidly formed along the north-south boundary collision zone and a funnel cloud was observed by many citizens and weather spotters in Kissimmee. Shortly thereafter, the funnel cloud developed into a tornado and produced minor damage to several homes within two adjacent subdivisions.

Air Traffic Controllers at the Orlando International Airport observed a brief tornado touchdown approximately 2 miles to their southwest. Several persons at the airport photographed the tornado. The tornado likely occurred in an undeveloped area of rural Orange County (Meadow Woods). No damage was reported. The (landspout) tornado developed as two strong sea breeze boundaries collided over the area, prior to any shower and thunderstorm development. Partly cloudy skies were occurring at the time. The photographs clearly showed a large radius of dust/dirt surrounding the vortex at the surface and the condensation funnel extending to the cloud base.

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
00:24 UTC01:02 UTCTornado WarningMLB

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:27 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.

Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), 00:00Z

0.0 hours before the tornado, 83 km from the path. July 8, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2017-07-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 735 joules per kilogram, CIN -89, lifted condensation level 1381 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2017-07-08The 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 41 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 7 knots.1939Sfc1 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
735 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-89 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2726 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1381 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
42 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), 12:00Z

12.0 hours after it, 83 km from the path. July 8, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2017-07-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1453 joules per kilogram, CIN -34, lifted condensation level 950 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2017-07-08The 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 -4 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 7 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1453 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-34 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3253 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
950 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-4 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-2 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:00 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
00:00 UTCTORNADO2 Sw Orlando InternatioOrange, FLAIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TOWER REPORTS A BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN THAT QUICKLY DISSIPATED. NO DAMAGE WAS REPORTED.
00:15 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDKissimmeeOsceola, FLMULTIPLE REPORTS OF A FUNNEL CLOUD IN KISSIMMEE TO BUENA VENTURA LAKES FROM 815PM TO 830PM EDT.
00:30 UTCTORNADO6 Ene Buena Ventura LakOrange, FLEMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTS A BRIEF TOUCHDOWN OF A TORNADO AT 417 AND LAKE NONA BLVD
00:30 UTCTORNADOBuena Ventura LakesOsceola, FLEMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTS A BRIEF TOUCHDOWN OF A TORNADO

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 7, 2017

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 712:30 PM CDTEF0Cameron, TX0.11
July 78:29 PM EDTEF0Osceola, FL0.725$20,000

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.