Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2021

EF0 tornado, Frontenac, Florida, June 12, 2021

This EF0 tornado ran 2.1 miles across Brevard County on June 12, 2021, touching down at 5:08 PM EDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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 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 12, 2021
Touchdown
5:08 PM EDT (21:08 UTC)
Lifted
5:09 PM EDT (21:09 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
2.1 miles (3.4 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000
County
Brevard County
Touchdown point
28.479, -80.729
Lift-off point
28.492, -80.698
Record number
2106121508-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cluster of thunderstorms that developed in Brevard County produced severe wind gusts near Cape Canaveral. One of the storms produced a brief, weak tornado as it moved onshore from the Indian River and affected the Preserve Point subdivision in northwest Merritt Island.

A resident of the Preserve Pointe subdivision on Merritt Island, just south of the NASA Causeway and west of State Road 3, observed trees being uprooted, fences destroyed and solar panels ripping off of neighbors' roofs as a severe thunderstorms passed by. The eyewitness report along with videos and photos confirmed that a brief, weak (EF-0) tornado likely developed within the thunderstorm and produced additional scattered, (mainly tree) damage northeastward to Pine Island Road. The circulation likely initially reached the ground within the Pine Island Conservation Area to the southwest of Preserve Pointe.

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
20:15 UTC21:15 UTCMarine WarningMLB
20:58 UTC22:00 UTCMarine WarningMLB
21:57 UTC23:00 UTCMarine 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:50 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

9.1 hours before the tornado, 21 km from the path. June 12, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 12:00Z on 2021-06-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 641 joules per kilogram, CIN -42, lifted condensation level 976 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 2021-06-12The 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 34 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
641 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-42 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2229 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
976 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
57 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.9 hours after it, 21 km from the path. June 13, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Canaveral, FL at 00:00Z on 2021-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 610 joules per kilogram, CIN -104, lifted condensation level 1336 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 2021-06-13The 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 156 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
610 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-104 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1597 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1336 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
156 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
135 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 42 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:07 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
20:01 UTCTSTM WND GST 401 N Lake Mary JaneOrange, FLWEATHERFLOW STATION AT LAKE MARY JANE REPORTED A 40MPH/35KT WIND GUST FROM THE SW.
20:35 UTCHAIL 0.75 E Avalon ParkOrange, FLTRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED HALF INCH HAIL ALONG BABBIT AVENUE IN WEDGEFIELD.
20:38 UTCHAIL 0.255 S RockledgeBrevard, FLPUBLIC REPORTED PEA SIZE HAIL IN VIERA.
21:05 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 Ene ShilohBrevard, FLUS AIR FORCE WIND NETWORK TOWER 0803 REPORTED A 44MPH/38KT GUST FROM THE SW.
21:05 UTCTSTM WND GST 444 Ne Camp Holly Fish CaBrevard, FLUS AIR FORCE WIND NETWORK TOWER 0020 REPORTED A 44MPH/38KT GUST FROM THE SW.
21:05 UTCTSTM WND GST 445 Ene Belle IsleBrevard, FLUSAF WIND TOWER 0805 MEASURED A PEAK WIND GUST OF 38KT/44MPH FROM THE SW.
21:05 UTCTSTM WND GST 445 Ne Port MayacaBrevard, FLUS AIR FORCE WIND NETWORK TOWER 0003 REPORTED A 44MPH/38KT GUST FROM THE SW.
21:18 UTCTSTM WND GST 442 Nne Cape CanaveralBrevard, FLC-MAN STATION TRDF1 AT TRIDENT PIER MEASURED A PEAK WIND GUST OF 38KT/44MPH FROM THE SW.
21:20 UTCTSTM WND GST 565 N Camp Holly Fish CamBrevard, FLUS AIR FORCE WIND NETWORK TOWER 0403 REPORTED A 56MPH/49KT GUST FROM THE WSW.
21:25 UTCTSTM WND GST 618 Sse Playalinda BeachBrevard, FLUS AIR FORCE WIND NETWORK TOWER 0108 REPORTED A 61MPH/53KT GUST FROM THE SW.
22:44 UTCWILDFIRE3 W EdgewaterVolusia, FLEMERGENCY MANAGEMENT REPORTS THE POSSUM CAMP ROAD WILDFIRE HAD RAPIDLY GROWN TO OVER 1000 ACRES WITH 25 PERCENT CONTAINMENT. MULTIPLE AGENCIES ARE IN RESPONSE AT THIS TIME.

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 June 12, 2021

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 125:30 PM MDTUnratedSan Miguel, NM4.6100

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.