EF0 tornado, Kissimmee, Florida, July 7, 2017

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

July 7, 2017

Touchdown

8:29 PM EDT (00:29 UTC)

Lifted

8:32 PM EDT (00:32 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

0.7 miles (1.1 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Osceola County

Touchdown point

28.317, -81.364

Lift-off point

28.322, -81.354

Record number

1707071829-01

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.

Numerous residents within the Buena Ventura Lakes region of Kissimmee observed a funnel cloud approach from the southwest and become a tornado as it traveled through two adjacent subdivisions for less than 0.75 miles. Eyewitnesses described swirling debris at the surface and swirling water within an adjacent lake, with a visible funnel farther aloft to the cloud base. Several single family homes sustained minor damage, consisting of several removed shingles, and damage to carports and pool screen enclosures. A large mango tree fell onto one home resulting in roof damage. The tornado path and intensity (EF-0, winds estimated at 60-70 mph) were determined after examining damage photos from Osceola County Emergency Management and the Orlando news media and interviewing several eyewitnesses. DI2, DOD1, EXP; DI2, DOD2, LB-EXP.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:27 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 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 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 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.

Kissimmee Municipal Airport/Orlando (ISM), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:30 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 2017 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.