Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2021

EF1 tornado, Fort Myers Villas, Florida, December 21, 2021

This EF1 tornado ran 1.3 miles across Lee County on December 21, 2021, touching down at 6:25 AM EST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $750,000 of property damage.

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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
December 21, 2021
Touchdown
6:25 AM EST (11:25 UTC)
Lifted
6:27 AM EST (11:27 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.3 miles (2.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$750,000
County
Lee County
Touchdown point
26.512, -81.842
Lift-off point
26.529, -81.832
Record number
2112210525-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A low pressure formed in the Gulf of Mexico along with a cold front. These two features pushed across the state as it started to deepen. This caused high winds and spawned a tornado in West Central Florida.

Dozens of homes had roof damage and numerous trees and large branches|broken near and along the path of the tornado. One minor injury was|reported due to broken glass and several pool enclosures and vehicles were|also damaged. Initial estimated damages exceed $500K. Damaging winds|continued past the initial tornado damage due to gradient winds.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 10:23 UTC and running to 15:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:23 UTC15:00 UTCTornado WatchTBW
12:00 UTC12:00 UTCRip Currents StatementTBW
12:00 UTC00:00 UTCHigh Surf AdvisoryTBW
13:51 UTC17:00 UTCWind AdvisoryTBW

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:37 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.

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 00:00Z

11.4 hours before the tornado, 143 km from the path. December 21, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2021-12-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -6980, lifted condensation level 721 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2021-12-21The 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 127 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6980 J/kg
Surface CAPE
9 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
721 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
127 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
194 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 12:00Z

0.6 hours after it, 143 km from the path. December 21, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2021-12-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 123 joules per kilogram, CIN -150, lifted condensation level 533 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, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2021-12-21The 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 260 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 61 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
123 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-150 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
533 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
260 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
340 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 143 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:26 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
11:25 UTCTORNADO3 Nw EsteroLee, FL*** 1 INJ *** EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT REPORTS THAT A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN AT 625 AM EST IN SOUTH FORT MYERS. INTENSITY STILL TO BE DETERMINED AND A MORE DETAILED SUMMARY WILL BE ISSUED THIS AFTERNOON.
13:04 UTCTSTM WND GST 403 Ssw Cape CoralLee, FLMESONET STATION XTRP TARPON PT.
13:24 UTCNON-TSTM WND GST 443 Ssw Cape CoralLee, FLMESONET STATION XTRP TARPON PT.
13:53 UTCNON-TSTM WND GST 431 Se Southwest InternatLee, FLASOS STATION KRSW FORT MYERS.
13:53 UTCNON-TSTM WND GST 542 Se SolanaCharlotte, FLASOS STATION KPGD PUNTA GORDA.

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

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.