EF0 tornado, Belle Glade, Florida, May 21, 2020

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

May 21, 2020

Touchdown

2:45 PM EDT (18:45 UTC)

Lifted

3:00 PM EDT (19:00 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Palm Beach County

Touchdown point

26.677, -80.674

Lift-off point

26.677, -80.674

Record number

2005211245-01

A rex block characterized by a deep upper-level low across the Tennessee Valley Region and an upper-level high across the Great Lakes Region gave way to an upper-level cold pocket across the southeastern portions of the United states. Simultaneously, a mid-level vorticity lobe rotated across the region which also aided in an increase of convection, especially due to the combination of lingering boundaries and sea breeze formation. Forecast soundings also showed an inverted V as well as favorable DCAPE values, which were supportive for a few damaging wind gusts with the taller, more robust, updrafts contained hail. Furthermore, tornado potential increased with favorable low level winds and shear across land. Finally, with an overall weaker flow aloft and PWATs approaching the 2 inch mark, some localized flooding occurred.

The Palm Beach Sheriffs Office and multiple trained spotters reported that a landspout tornado occurred in an open field near 800 S. Main Street in Belle Glade. No damage was noted.

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

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.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:01 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 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.

The Miami radar (KAMX), 121 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:45 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.

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

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

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

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.