Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2019

EF0 tornado, Loxahatchee, Florida, May 3, 2019

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Palm Beach County on May 3, 2019, touching down at 4:50 PM EDT and reaching 20 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
May 3, 2019
Touchdown
4:50 PM EDT (20:50 UTC)
Lifted
4:51 PM EDT (20:51 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Palm Beach County
Touchdown point
26.748, -80.352
Lift-off point
26.748, -80.352
Record number
1905031450-01

The damage survey

8 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 73 mph.

  • Roof panels removed from almost half of the horse barn
  • Loss of around half of horse stable roof panels
  • Top of tree damaged by descending EF-0 tornado
  • Large branches broken off tree

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

A trough of low pressure over Central Florida with a mid-level shortwave was moving over the Florida Peninsula. Ample moisture across the region with southwesterly wind flow allowed for showers and thunderstorms to develop. Cold temperatures aloft and convective instability allowed some of the stronger thunderstorms to become severe. Storms in Palm Beach County produced a funnel cloud and a tornado. Lightning in Miami-Dade caused a house fire.

NWS Damage Survey confirmed a short-lived EF-0 tornado that damaged a horse stable roof, nearby fencing, and trees on the afternoon of May 3rd, 2019 in the Loxahatchee area of inland Palm Beach County.

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

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS MFL issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:47 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:58 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:47 UTC20:58 UTCTornado WarningMFL
22:11 UTC00:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryMFL

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 19:57 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

8.8 hours before the tornado, 103 km from the path. May 3, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2019-05-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1651 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 817 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, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2019-05-03The 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 15 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
1651 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2667 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
817 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
15 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
97 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

3.2 hours after it, 103 km from the path. May 4, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2019-05-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 164 joules per kilogram, CIN -99, lifted condensation level 1439 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, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2019-05-04The 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 49 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
164 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-99 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1208 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1439 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
49 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
78 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

West Palm Beach (F45), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:50 UTC84.275.2160° 7 kt1014.9VCTS
19:10 UTC84.275.2140° 6 kt1014.9VCTS
19:30 UTC84.275.2140° 9 kt171014.9VCTS
19:50 UTC73.46880° 13 kt201014.9+TSRA
20:10 UTC75.275.2170° 6 kt1014.2TS
20:30 UTC71.669.8180° 19 kt361015.6+TSRA
20:50 UTC6868210° 12 kt211015.2+TSRA
21:10 UTC66.266.2190° 11 kt301016.3+TSRA
21:30 UTC6868140° 6 kt1015.9-TSRA
21:50 UTC6868140° 5 kt1015.6-TSRA
22:10 UTC69.869.80° 0 kt1015.2VCTS
22:30 UTC71.671.6170° 4 kt1015.6VCTS

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

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:50 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
19:33 UTCTSTM WND GST 421 Ssw Jensen BeachMartin, FLMESONET WEATHER STATION RECORDED A WIND GUST OF 36 KT/42 MPH FROM THE SW.
20:04 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD4 S CaloosaPalm Beach, FLUSER VIA SOCIAL MEDIA SHARED PHOTO OF A FUNNEL CLOUD FROM NORTHLAKE BLVD LOOKING NORTH. TIME WAS ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
20:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Nne Lion Country SafaPalm Beach, FLSTRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO BARN.
20:50 UTCTORNADO3 Nne Lion Country SafaPalm Beach, FLNWS STORM SURVEY OF THE LOXAHATCHEE AREA FOUND DAMAGE CONSISTENT WITH AN EF-0 TORNADO TO A HORSE STABLE ROOF, FENCING, AND NEARBY TREES.
21:41 UTCHAIL 0.25Boynton BeachPalm Beach, FLPEA SIZE HAIL REPORTED IN BOYNTON BEACH

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 3, 2019

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 37:14 AM CDTEF0Lavaca, TX2.820$20,000
May 38:14 AM CDTEF0Fayette, TX4.220$50,000
May 39:04 AM CDTEF2Fayette, TX2.475$4.0 million
May 312:59 PM CDTEF0Brewster, TX0.150
May 31:22 PM CDTEF0Colorado, TX0.520
May 32:00 PM CDTEF0Harris, TX0.315
May 36:34 PM CDTEF0Glasscock, TX0.150

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.