Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2021
EF0 tornado, River Bridge, Florida, February 6, 2021
This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Indian River County on February 6, 2021, touching down at 4:12 PM EST and reaching 65 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- February 6, 2021
- Touchdown
- 4:12 PM EST (21:12 UTC)
- Lifted
- 4:13 PM EST (21:13 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 65 yards (59 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Indian River County
- Touchdown point
- 27.736, -80.532
- Lift-off point
- 27.738, -80.532
- Record number
- 2102061512-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A thunderstorm produced a brief, weak tornado (landspout) in Vero Lakes Estates, resulting in minor damage to fences and trees.
Based on radar, video, and eyewitness reports received from the public, a brief EF-0 tornado (landspout) occurred in Vero Lakes Estates. Peak estimated wind speeds were between 65 and 70 mph. The landspout tornado formed at approximately 1612 LST at 100th Avenue, just north of 77th Street, in Vero Lakes Estates. The tornado traveled a relatively short distance, moving almost due north along 100th Avenue, then dissipated just before reaching 79th Street at approximately 1613 LST. Several properties sustained minor fence damage and many had unsecured backyard items scattered around. There was also minor tree damage along the street.
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.
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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 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
9.2 hours before the tornado, 82 km from the path. February 6, 2021.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -91336 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 871 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 59 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 160 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 315 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 2.6 K/km
Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), 00:00Z
2.8 hours after it, 82 km from the path. February 7, 2021.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 947 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -43 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1439 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 775 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 58 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 293 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 360 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.0
- Supercell composite
- 9.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.4 K/km
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:12 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ese Fellsmere | Indian River, FL | BASED ON RADAR, VIDEO, AND EYEWITNESS REPORTS, NWS MELBOURNE CAN CONFIRM A BRIEF, WEAK EF-0 LANDSPOUT TORNADO OCCURRED IN VERO LAKES ESTATES AT 412 PM ON SATURDAY FEBRUARY 6. |
| 21:38 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 5 E Fellsmere | Indian River, FL | PUBLIC REPORTS A SHORT LIVED FUNNEL CLOUD JUST NORTH OF SEBASTIAN RIVER HIGH SCHOOL. |
| 21:38 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Ese Fellsmere | Indian River, FL | PUBLIC REPORTS FENCE DAMAGE TO SEVERAL HOMES NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF 79TH STREET AND 100 AVE IN VERO LAKES ESTATES, ALONG WITH SOME BACKYARD ITEMS THROWN ABOUT. POSSIBLE BRIEF TORNADO MAY HAVE TOUCHED DOWN. |
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.