Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2018

EF0 tornado, Canal Pt, Florida, June 13, 2018

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Palm Beach County on June 13, 2018, touching down at 2:10 PM EDT and reaching 5 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
June 13, 2018
Touchdown
2:10 PM EDT (18:10 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
5 yards (5 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Palm Beach County
Touchdown point
26.850, -80.640
Lift-off point
26.850, -80.640
Record number
1806131210-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Deep tropical moisture lead to the development of showers and storms across South Florida during the afternoon hours. A boundary collision near Lake Okeechobee lead to the development of a brief landspout in an open field.

Multiple reports and photos received, including from trained spotters, of landspout tornado in an open field about 5 miles northeast of Pahokee Airport, or near Canal Point. No damage observed.

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.

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 16:35 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.

Miami, FL (KMFL), 12:00Z

6.2 hours before the tornado, 120 km from the path. June 13, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2018-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1757 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 809 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, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2018-06-13The 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 31 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 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
1757 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2023 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
809 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
31 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

5.8 hours after it, 120 km from the path. June 14, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2018-06-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 603 joules per kilogram, CIN -45, lifted condensation level 1123 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, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2018-06-14The 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 1 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 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
603 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-45 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2246 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1123 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
1 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
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
18:10 UTCTORNADO1 Nne Canal PointPalm Beach, FLMULTIPLE REPORTS AND PHOTOS RECEIVED, INCLUDING FROM TRAINED SPOTTERS, OF LANDSPOUT TORNADO IN AN OPEN FIELD ABOUT 5 MILES NORTHEAST OF PAHOKEE AIRPORT, OR NEAR CANAL POINT. NO DAMAGE OBSERVED.
18:10 UTCTORNADO1 Ssw Canal PointPalm Beach, FLMULTIPLE REPORTS AND PHOTOS RECEIVED, INCLUDING FROM TRAINED SPOTTERS, OF LANDSPOUT TORNADO IN AN OPEN FIELD ABOUT 5 MILES NORTHEAST OF PAHOKEE AIRPORT, OR NEAR CANAL POINT. NO DAMAGE OBSERVED.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 13, 2018

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 134:51 PM CDTEF0Prairie, AR1.020$5,000
June 138:16 PM EDTEF2Bradford, PA5.2250$500,000
June 138:44 PM EDTEF1Cambria, PA0.5150
June 1310:02 PM EDTEF2Luzerne, PA2.91506$5.0 million

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.