EF0 tornado, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, April 6, 2022

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

April 6, 2022

Touchdown

5:23 PM EDT (21:23 UTC)

Lifted

5:31 PM EDT (21:31 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (0.9 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$153,000

County

Palm Beach County

Touchdown point

26.831, -80.104

Lift-off point

26.823, -80.107

Record number

2204061523-01

24 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MFL, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Tree branch tops twisted off
• Baseball mat aprox 100-200 pounds
• Soccer goal thrown 100-150 yards
• Fiberglass siding and insulation blown off

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

A warm and moist SW wind flow across the South Florida led to the formation of thunderstorms across Palm Beach County during the afternoon hours of April 6th. One of these thunderstorms produced a tornado in Palm Beach Gardens. Lightning from these storms triggered a brush fire near PGA Boulevard and the Florida Turnpike.

A tornado developed from a south-moving thunderstorm over northern Palm Beach County. The tornado touched down in the area of Burns Road in Palm Beach Gardens, producing roof, awning, and fence damage to an apartment complex and adjacent community center. There was substantial damage at the community center to light poles, fences, bleachers, pool equipment, and playground equipment. The tornado then passed over the property of Palm Beach Gardens High School where a wind gust of 78 mph was recorded. Damage at the school was primarily to trees and fences. The tornado continued to produce tree damage along Military Trail until lifting near the St. Ignatius Loyola Cathedral south of Holly Drive.||It was determined to be a high-end EF-0 with maximum winds estimated around 85 mph. Damage amounts were provided by Palm Beach Gardens PD and emergency management officials.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

26 minutes of warning. NWS MFL issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:57 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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 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.

The Miami radar (KAMX), 139 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:22 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.

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

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

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

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.