Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2017
EF0 tornado, Marineland, Florida, September 10, 2017
This EF0 tornado ran 4.1 miles across Flagler County on September 10, 2017, touching down at 8:13 PM EDT and reaching 200 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- September 10, 2017
- Touchdown
- 8:13 PM EDT (00:13 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:23 PM EDT (00:23 UTC)
- On the ground
- 10 minutes
- Path length
- 4.1 miles (6.6 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Flagler County
- Touchdown point
- 29.645, -81.210
- Lift-off point
- 29.660, -81.277
- Record number
- 1709101813-01
The damage survey
13 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The highest wind the damage implies is 62 mph.
- 24 inches above ground level. Anastasia Island, St. Aug. 235 Coquina.
- 18 inches above ground level in garage. Matthew was 26 inches above ground.
- 508 N. Flagler. 1 foot 6.5 inches built in 1965
- wind damage - roof Flagler Beach Library
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
Hurricane Irma's eye passed west of the local forecast area, with the region on the storm's turbulent east side. Widespread tropical storm force winds with gusts to hurricane force were felt across much of the area, with the strongest winds surging up the Florida east coast during the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 11th. Extensive tree and power line damage occurred across the local area from the winds. One of the greatest local impacts exacerbated by Irma's rainfall and storm surge was river flooding. Prior to Irma's arrival, a local nor'eastern developed 3 days prior, with strong onshore flow pumping water into the St. Johns River basin. Elevated water levels of 1-2 ft above normal tidal departure were already ongoing for several tidal cycles before Irma's surge and rainfall. The nor'easter also brought localized heavy rainfall bands, with some areas near the coast realizing 4-6 inches in 24 hrs the days prior to Irma. In addition, precursor conditions to the nor'easter included an above average rainfall across the region during the summer months. Major, historic river flooding was forecast along Black Creek and the Sante Fe a week prior to Irma. Realized river values along the St. Johns surpassed prior record levels set by Hurricane Dora in 1964, during low tide the morning of Sept. 11th. The St. Johns River basin continued to rise with the combination of trapped tides due to the nor'easter, astronomically high tides heading into the spring tide season, storm surge of up to 5 ft in some areas, fresh water rainfall of 7-11 inches, and strong southerly winds pushing the water across the basin on the east side of Irma. Historic river flooding occurred across much of NE Florida Sept 11th through the following week as water levels were slow to funnel out of the St. Johns basin. Coastal infrastructure that was already weakened about 1 year ago due to Hurricane Matthew suffered the most damage from Irma's storm surge.
This tornado touchdown in northern Flagler county just south of Marineland. Damage was limited to trees. Structural damage was not reported. A tornado debris signature was detected along the path. The tornado remained over the Pellicer Creek Conservation Area before dissipating just west of Interstate 95.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
3 minutes of warning. NWS JAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:10 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:02 UTC and running to 03:50 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:12 UTC | 17:15 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 15:57 UTC | 19:00 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 16:02 UTC | 03:50 UTC | Tornado Watch | JAX |
| 16:19 UTC | 16:41 UTC | Tornado Warning | JAX |
| 17:28 UTC | 18:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | JAX |
| 19:09 UTC | 22:15 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 21:21 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 21:48 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 23:36 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | JAX |
| 00:09 UTC | 03:15 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 00:10 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | JAX |
| 03:50 UTC | 12:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | JAX |
| 04:26 UTC | 07:30 UTC | Flood Warning | JAX |
| 04:49 UTC | 09:45 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | JAX |
| 05:35 UTC | 08:30 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | JAX |
| 12:08 UTC | 20:53 UTC | Tropical Storm Warning | JAX |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:42 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.
Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), 00:00Z
0.2 hours before the tornado, 104 km from the path. September 11, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 270 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- 0 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 474 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 514 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 39 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 42 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 282 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 319 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 2.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.3 K/km
The radar
The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:14 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:37 UTC | TROPICAL STORM | 3 Wnw Vilano Beach | St. Johns, FL | ASOS MEASURED WIND GUST OF 55 MPH. |
| 22:30 UTC | TROPICAL STORM | 1 Nne Flagler Beach | Flagler, FL | STORM SPOTTER WITH FIXED ANEMOMETER MEASURED A WIND GUST OF 50 MPH. |
| 23:40 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 50 | 2 Nw St. Augustine | St. Johns, FL | MESONET STATION MEASURED SUSTAINED OF 30 MPH FROM THE NNE WITH A GUST OF 50 MPH. |
| 23:50 UTC | TORNADO | 1 N Vilano Beach | St. Johns, FL | THIS TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ON VILLANO BEACH NEAR 4TH AND 5TH STREET CAUSING MINOR TREE DAMAGE AS IT MOVED WEST. AFTER CROSSING THE INTER-COASTAL WATERWAY THE TORNADO INTENSIFIED TO EF-1 WITH 85-100MPH WINDS AND SNAPPED/UP |
| 23:52 UTC | TORNADO | 4 N St. Augustine | St. Johns, FL | MEDIA PASSED ON REPORT BY PUBLIC OF POSSIBLE TORNADO AT VILANO BEACH AT 4TH STREET. |
| 23:53 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Nnw St. Augustine | St. Johns, FL | MULTIPLE TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN. ROOF DAMAGE ON 5TH AVENUE NEAR VILLANO BEACH. |
| 00:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Wnw Vilano Beach | St. Johns, FL | PUBLIC REPORT OF WIND DAMAGE. TORNADO REPORT EAST OF THIS LOCATION SO POTENTIALLY MORE TORNADO DAMAGE. |
| 00:20 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Sse Marineland | Flagler, FL | THIS TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN NORTHERN FLAGLER COUNTY JUST SOUTH OF MARINELAND. DAMAGE WAS LIMITED TO TREES WITH A TORNADIC DEBRIS SIGNATURE NOTED ON KJAX RADAR. THE TORNADO REMAINED OVER THE PELLICER CREEK CONSERVATION A |
| 00:46 UTC | TROPICAL STORM | 5 Nnw St. Augustine | St. Johns, FL | AWOS STATION MEASURED A WIND GUST OF 58 MPH. |
| 01:05 UTC | TROPICAL STORM | Flagler Beach | Flagler, FL | TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED A WIND GUST OF 60 MPH. |
| 01:40 UTC | FLOOD | 5 Se Andalusia | Flagler, FL | A NUMBER OF SECONDARY ROADS IN THE DAYTONA NORTH AREA ARE IMPASSABLE. |
| 02:02 UTC | HURRICANE | Daytona Beach Airport | Volusia, FL | ASOS AT DAYTONA BEACH INT. AIRPORT MEASURED A PEAK WIND GUST OF 78MPH/68KT FROM THE NORTHEAST. |
| 02:55 UTC | TROPICAL STORM | Bunnell | Flagler, FL | FIN ASOS REPORTED A GUST OF 51 KNOTS. |
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 September 10, 2017
15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 10 | 8:59 AM EDT | EF1 | Hardee, FL | 0.0 | 50 | $40,000 | ||
| September 10 | 9:19 AM EDT | EF0 | Brevard, FL | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| September 10 | 11:00 AM EDT | EF1 | Brevard, FL | 1.3 | 75 | |||
| September 10 | 11:19 AM EDT | EF2 | Polk, FL | 0.6 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| September 10 | 11:24 AM EDT | EF1 | Brevard, FL | 1.2 | 75 | |||
| September 10 | 1:40 PM EDT | EF1 | Saint Johns, FL | 1.2 | 50 | |||
| September 10 | 5:48 PM EDT | EF2 | Brevard, FL | 1.6 | 125 | |||
| September 10 | 6:00 PM EDT | EF1 | Brevard, FL | 0.5 | 60 | |||
| September 10 | 6:28 PM EDT | EF1 | Lake, FL | 3.8 | 500 | |||
| September 10 | 7:50 PM EDT | EF1 | Saint Johns, FL | 5.0 | 200 | |||
| September 10 | 9:04 PM EDT | EF1 | Volusia, FL | 0.8 | 175 | |||
| September 10 | 9:04 PM EDT | EF1 | Brevard, FL | 1.2 | 50 | |||
| September 10 | 9:14 PM EDT | EF1 | Brevard, FL | 0.3 | 60 | |||
| September 10 | 9:48 PM EDT | EF1 | Brevard, FL | 3.4 | 60 | |||
| September 10 | 1:15 AM EDT | EF2 | Saint Johns, FL | 1.2 | 300 |
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.