Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2022

EF0 tornado, Lake Weir, Florida, July 22, 2022

This EF0 tornado ran 1.4 miles across Marion County on July 22, 2022, touching down at 7:38 PM EDT and reaching 50 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.

  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
July 22, 2022
Touchdown
7:38 PM EDT (23:38 UTC)
Lifted
7:42 PM EDT (23:42 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
1.4 miles (2.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Marion County
Touchdown point
28.998, -81.943
Lift-off point
29.016, -81.936
Record number
2207221738-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A few strong to isolated severe storms impacted NE FL as both sea breeze fronts converged near the US 301 corridor late in the afternoon and early evening over a moist and unstable airmass.

A waterspout formed over Lake Wier and caused minor wind damage.

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
23:22 UTC23:42 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAX
00:13 UTC00:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAX

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 19:42 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

11.6 hours before the tornado, 152 km from the path. July 22, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2022-07-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1790 joules per kilogram, CIN -38, lifted condensation level 901 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2022-07-22The 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 17 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 10 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
1790 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-38 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1363 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
901 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
17 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
5 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.4 hours after it, 152 km from the path. July 23, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2022-07-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 282 joules per kilogram, CIN -128, lifted condensation level 1228 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2022-07-23The 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 11 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 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
282 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-128 J/kg
Surface CAPE
111 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1228 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
11 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-37 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 152 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:41 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
23:30 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 Ne WildwoodSumter, FLVIDEO AND PICTURE SENT SHOWING A FUNNEL OVER LAKE SUMTER IN THE VILLAGES.
23:38 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Wsw WeirsdaleMarion, FLTHUNDERSTORM WIND DAMAGE, POSSIBLE TORNADO REPORTED.
23:40 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD3 Sse Lake WeirMarion, FLREPORT OF WATERSPOUT OVER LAKE WEIR.

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 July 22, 2022

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 2211:25 AM CDTEF0Jefferson, TX1.710
July 224:58 PM CDTUnratedThomas, KS0.950
July 225:00 PM CDTUnratedThomas, KS1.150
July 225:15 PM CDTUnratedThomas, KS1.850
July 225:21 PM CDTUnratedThomas, KS0.350
July 225:21 PM CDTUnratedThomas, KS0.250
July 225:28 PM CDTUnratedThomas, KS0.750
July 2212:17 AM CDTEF0Steele, ND0.9150
July 2212:31 AM CDTEF1Grand Forks, ND1.2150

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.