Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2020

EF0 tornado, Tavares, Florida, June 7, 2020

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Lake County on June 7, 2020, touching down at 6:41 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
June 7, 2020
Touchdown
6:41 PM EDT (22:41 UTC)
Lifted
6:42 PM EDT (22:42 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Lake County
Touchdown point
28.791, -81.704
Lift-off point
28.798, -81.701
Record number
2006071641-01

The damage survey

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MLB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 65 mph.

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

As Tropical Storm Cristobal approached the northern Gulf Coast, scattered storms developed in Lake County. Two of the thunderstorms became severe and produced brief, weak tornadoes near Lisbon and Tavares.

Based on numerous videos, pictures, and reports received from Lake County Emergency Management, Lake County Sheriff's Office, local broadcast media, trained spotters and the public, a waterspout on Lake Dora came onshore in Tavares as a brief tornado before quickly dissipating. The waterspout formed on Lake Dora at approximately 1741 LST. The waterspout came onshore on the north side of the lake near the 32900th block of Lakeshore Drive in Tavares at approximately 1742 LST, as a weakening tornado. The tornado knocked down a power pole and transformer on Lakeshore Drive before dissipating north of the road. Peak winds are estimated between 60-65 mph. No other damages or injuries occurred.

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:13 UTC19:45 UTCTornado WarningMLB
19:44 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningMLB

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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

10.7 hours before the tornado, 123 km from the path. June 7, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2020-06-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2239 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 680 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, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2020-06-07The 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 136 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
2239 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4232 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
680 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
136 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
252 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
8.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.3 hours after it, 123 km from the path. June 8, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2020-06-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2042 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 714 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, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2020-06-08The 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 85 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 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
2042 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3504 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
714 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
85 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
122 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
4.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:40 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
19:47 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD4 Se EmeraldaLake, FLMULTIPLE REPORTS FROM TRAINED SPOTTERS BETWEEN 347-350PM OF A FUNNEL CLOUD NEAR LAKE YALE. ONE SPOTTER NOTED IT WAS 3/4 OF THE WAY TO THE GROUND.
22:42 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 Ese Lake GriffinLake, FLTRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED A LIFTING FUNNEL CLOUD NEAR THE AREA OF COUNTY ROAD 473 AND US 441.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2020 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 7, 2020

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 73:30 PM EDTEF0Columbia, FL1.4100
June 73:40 PM EDTEF0Lake, FL0.025
June 74:05 PM EDTEF0Union, FL0.025
June 76:05 PM CDTEF1Hyde, SD0.450
June 76:17 PM CDTEF1Faulk, SD1.070
June 76:25 PM CDTEF1Faulk, SD0.7150
June 76:45 PM CDTUnratedMcIntosh, ND0.230
June 77:20 PM CDTUnratedDickey, ND0.430
June 78:30 PM CDTEF0Brown, SD5.350
June 78:52 PM CDTEF0Nelson, ND0.150

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.