Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2022

EF0 tornado, Fort Myers Villas, Florida, April 29, 2022

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Lee County on April 29, 2022, touching down at 5:00 PM EDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 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
April 29, 2022
Touchdown
5:00 PM EDT (21:00 UTC)
Lifted
5:01 PM EDT (21:01 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$25,000
County
Lee County
Touchdown point
26.529, -81.894
Lift-off point
26.529, -81.893
Record number
2204291500-01

The damage survey

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TBW, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 70 mph.

  • Ceramic shingles and other small roofing pieces blown off of roof of home.
  • Minor damage to vinyl fence.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

What the Weather Service recorded

Afternoon sea breeze thunderstorms spawn brief tornado over Ft. Myers.

Broadcast media relayed video of brief tornado near Cypress Lake in Ft. Myers. Minor roof damage reported to one house with a fence partially blown down in the backyard of another nearby house.

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
22:06 UTC01:15 UTCFlood 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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), 12:00Z

9.0 hours before the tornado, 140 km from the path. April 29, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2022-04-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 12 joules per kilogram, CIN -86, lifted condensation level 933 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 2022-04-29The 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 77 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-86 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
933 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
77 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
153 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.0 hours after it, 140 km from the path. April 30, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2022-04-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 697 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 871 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 00:00Z on 2022-04-30The 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 -36 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 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
697 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2260 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
871 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-36 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
1 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:30 UTCHAIL 0.253 Nw Southwest InternatLee, FLBROADCAST MEDIA RELAYED A PUBLIC REPORT OF PEA SIZED HAIL IN MARINA BAY IN FORT MYERS AT 4:30 PM.
21:00 UTCTORNADO3 Sw Fort Myers VillasLee, FLBROADCAST MEDIA RELAYED VIEWER VIDEOS OF A BRIEF TORNADO NEAR WINKLER RD. AND GLADIOLUS DR. IN FORT MYERS. THE VIDEO SHOWED A ROTATING DEBRIS CLOUD NEAR THE SURFACE.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 29, 2022

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 294:52 PM CDTUnratedHarlan, NE1.320
April 295:12 PM CDTUnratedHarlan, NE0.020
April 295:39 PM CDTUnratedKearney, NE1.320
April 296:31 PM CDTEF0Dickinson, KS1.350
April 297:05 PM CDTEF0Nuckolls, NE4.835
April 297:52 PM CDTEF1Dickinson, KS4.250
April 298:00 PM CDTEF1Dickinson, KS21.850
April 298:02 PM CDTEF1Colfax, NE3.420
April 298:03 PM CDTEF1Marion, KS0.950
April 298:03 PM CDTEF1Pottawatomie, KS11.1100
April 298:03 PM CDTEF0Marion, KS0.130
April 298:10 PM CDTEF1Otoe, NE0.8100
April 298:10 PM CDTEF0Marion, KS0.230
April 298:10 PM CDTEF3Andover tornado, KS12.72503$42 million
April 298:18 PM CDTEF1Otoe, NE0.1100
April 298:19 PM CDTUnratedHarvey, KS0.250
April 298:37 PM CDTEF1Jackson, KS3.340
April 298:47 PM CDTUnratedButler, KS0.250
April 299:05 PM CDTEF1Butler, KS8.1100
April 299:44 PM CDTEF1Greenwood, KS0.060

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.