EF0 tornado, Davie to Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, March 13, 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

March 13, 2017

Touchdown

1:23 AM EDT (05:23 UTC)

Lifted

1:27 AM EDT (05:27 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.3 miles (2.0 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Broward County

Touchdown point

26.128, -80.298

Lift-off point

26.133, -80.278

Record number

1703132323-01

15 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MFL, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 93 mph.

• young oak tree snapped on Hiatus
• near Cleary and Central Park Place
• roof caps lofted from several units
• shallow-rooted tree uprooted

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A low pressure system tracking across Florida produced a squall line in the overnight hours. A strong jet stream aloft as well as abundant moisture allowed some of the storms embedded in the squall line to become severe. These storms produced wind damage with multiple trees down and a tornado in Broward County.

A NWS survey team confirmed a tornado across parts of Plantation. Damage consisted of trees uprooted and branches split/broken, as well as fences blown over. Fallen trees also damaged several vehicles. The damage path began near Hiatus Road and NW 6 ST, ending near Clearly Blvd and Central Park Place North. Most concentrated area of damage was along NW 6 ST from NW 106 Ave block to Nob Hill Rd, then along Cleary Blvd from Nob Hill to NW 98 Ave. ||Tornado was initially rated an EF-1, but subsequent review of the damage suggests that tree damage resembling typical EF-1 level damage was instead influenced by a high canopy and shallow root system which can lead to large trees toppling at relatively low wind speeds. Therefore, final rating is EF-0 (peak wind 85 mph), near the threshold of EF-1.||Damage total provided is a general estimate and based mostly on the number of trees damaged.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 01:00 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.

The Miami radar (KAMX), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:25 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 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.