Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2017

EF0 tornado, Saint Lucie County, Florida, March 23, 2017

This EF0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Saint Lucie County on March 23, 2017, touching down at 1:40 PM EDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2,000 of property damage.

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
March 23, 2017
Touchdown
1:40 PM EDT (17:40 UTC)
Lifted
1:42 PM EDT (17:42 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.0 miles (1.5 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$2,000
County
Saint Lucie County
Touchdown point
27.522, -80.550
Lift-off point
27.512, -80.560
Record number
1703231140-01

The warnings

0 minutes of warning. NWS MLB issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:40 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
11:00 UTC00:00 UTCRip Currents StatementMLB
16:00 UTC00:00 UTCLake Wind AdvisoryMLB
17:16 UTC18:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMLB
17:40 UTC18:15 UTCTornado WarningMLB
18:00 UTC00:00 UTCHigh Surf AdvisoryMLB

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:25 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), 12:00Z

5.7 hours before the tornado, 106 km from the path. March 23, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2017-03-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1038 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 665 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2017-03-23The 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 -153 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1038 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
723 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
665 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-153 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-30 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.6
Supercell composite
-3.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

6.3 hours after it, 106 km from the path. March 24, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2017-03-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 14 joules per kilogram, CIN -26, lifted condensation level 1010 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2017-03-24The 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 -59 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 knots.193958Sfc1 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
14 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-26 J/kg
Surface CAPE
276 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1010 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-59 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
19 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 67 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:42 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
17:10 UTCTSTM WND GST 532 Ese GiffordIndian River, FLTHE ASOS STATION AT VERO BEACH AIRPORT, KVRB, MEASURED A PEAK WIND GUST OF 46 KNOTS DURING A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM.
17:10 UTCHAIL 0.251 Wsw Pointe WestIndian River, FLTRAINED SPOTTER REPORTS PEA SIZED HAIL DURING A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM NEAR VERO BEACH.
17:14 UTCHAIL 0.75 Ssw Vero BeachIndian River, FLTRAINED SPOTTER REPORTS PEA TO DIME SIZED HAIL FROM STRONG THUNDERSTORM NEAR VERO BEACH.
17:14 UTCHAIL 1.25Vero BeachIndian River, FLPUBLIC CITIZEN REPORTS QUARTER TO HALF DOLLAR SIZED HAIL FROM A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM IN VERO BEACH. ALSO REPORTS STRONG WINDS, LIKELY GREATER THAN 40 MPH.
17:17 UTCHAIL 0.883 S GiffordIndian River, FLHAM KA1VRF TOOK REPORT OF NICKLE SIZED HAIL IN VERO BEACH DURING A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM. APPROXIMATE LOCATION IS ROUTE 60 AND 27TH AVENUE.
17:27 UTCHAIL 1.25Vero BeachIndian River, FLPUBLIC CITIZEN REPORTS QUARTER TO HALF DOLLAR SIZED HAIL FROM A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM IN VERO BEACH. ALSO REPORTS STRONG WINDS, LIKELY GREATER THAN 40 MPH.
17:30 UTCHAIL 0.253 Sse GiffordIndian River, FLPUBLIC CITIZEN REPORTED PEA SIZED HAIL DURING A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM IN VERO BEACH. APPROXIMATE LOCATION IS U.S.-1 AND 17TH STREET.

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

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.