Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2021

EF0 tornado, Isleboro, Florida, August 2, 2021

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Volusia County on August 2, 2021, touching down at 2:40 PM EDT and reaching 25 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
August 2, 2021
Touchdown
2:40 PM EDT (18:40 UTC)
Lifted
2:41 PM EDT (18:41 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Volusia County
Touchdown point
29.078, -80.955
Lift-off point
29.079, -80.945
Record number
2108021240-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A couple of severe thunderstorms developed along the sea breeze collision. One storm produced a tornado in New Smyrna Beach, and another produced wind damage in Saint Cloud.

Based on information provided by the Volusia County Sheriffs Office, a short-lived tornado touched down just west of U.S. Highway 1, near the intersection of Sleepy Hollow Road, in New Smyrna Beach. Peak winds are estimated around 55-65 mph. The tornado touched down at approximately 1340LST, then traveled half of a mile east where it became a waterspout over the Intracoastal Waterway. The waterspout dissipated around 1341LST before reaching the barrier island. The tornado produced tree damage along Sleepy Hollow Road that included several medium to large-sized branches downed, and a couple of small trees knocked over. No additional damage reports were received.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:24 UTC20:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryMLB

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 16:19 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

6.7 hours before the tornado, 81 km from the path. August 2, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2021-08-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1347 joules per kilogram, CIN -31, lifted condensation level 904 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, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2021-08-02The 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 -11 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 9 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
1347 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-31 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3195 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
904 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-11 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
23 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

5.3 hours after it, 81 km from the path. August 3, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2021-08-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 149 joules per kilogram, CIN -142, lifted condensation level 1167 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, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2021-08-03The 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 72 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 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
149 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-142 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3413 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1167 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
72 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
142 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

New Smyrna Beach Municipal (EVB), 3 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:50 UTC87.877250° 7 kt121016.3
17:47 UTC91.473.4230° 7 kt1015.9
18:30 UTC84.275.2130° 13 kt211015.6TSRA
18:50 UTC7775.230° 18 kt281015.9TSRA
19:47 UTC7775.2230° 10 kt1016.3

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

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:40 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
18:25 UTCLIGHTNING1 Nne Flagler BeachFlagler, FLEMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTED A STRUCTURE FIRE NEAR SOUTH 7TH STREET IN FLAGLER BEACH DUE TO A LIGHTNING STRIKE AT 2:25 PM.
18:40 UTCTORNADO3 Nnw New Smyrna BeachVolusia, FLVOLUSIA COUNTY SHERIFF OFFICE REPORTED A TORNADO AROUND 240 PM ABOUT ONE MILE NORTH OF THE NEW SMYRNA BEACH AIRPORT. THE TORNADO MOVED TO THE SOUTHEAST, BECOMING A WATERSPOUT THEN DISSIPATED. MINOR WIND DAMAGE TO TREES A
18:45 UTCHEAVY RAIN 2.46 Se Daytona BeachVolusia, FLCOCORAHS OBSERVER REPORTED STREET FLOODING ON CARDINAL BLVD IN THE DAYTONA BEACH SHORES AREA. ALSO, 2.4 INCHES OF RAIN HAD FALLEN IN THE PREVIOUS 25 MINUTES.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 2, 2021

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 26:35 PM CDTEF0Galveston, TX0.720

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.