Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2022

EF0 tornado, Ft Myers Beach, Florida, March 12, 2022

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Lee County on March 12, 2022, touching down at 12:09 PM EST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1,000 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
March 12, 2022
Touchdown
12:09 PM EST (17:09 UTC)
Lifted
12:10 PM EST (17:10 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$1,000
County
Lee County
Touchdown point
26.451, -81.952
Lift-off point
26.451, -81.952
Record number
2203121109-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A deepening low pressure system dragged a strong cold front through West Central Florida. As it did it produced strong winds and tornadoes.

Waterspout briefly moved onshore to become tornado and did minor damage an Lani Kai.

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
12:00 UTC18:00 UTCHigh Surf AdvisoryTBW
12:00 UTC18:00 UTCRip Currents StatementTBW

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:17 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

5.2 hours before the tornado, 146 km from the path. March 12, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2022-03-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 241 joules per kilogram, CIN -46, lifted condensation level 934 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 2022-03-12The 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 475 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
241 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-46 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2232 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
934 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
475 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
491 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
19.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

6.8 hours after it, 146 km from the path. March 13, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2022-03-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -83404, lifted condensation level 1490 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2022-03-13The 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 -215 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 76 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-83404 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1490 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
76 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-215 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-259 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 146 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:11 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
17:09 UTCTORNADO5 Se Punta RassaLee, FL* DELAYED REPORT * VIDEO ON SOCIAL MEDIA SHOWS A WATERSPOUT BRIEFLY MOVED ONSHORE AS A WEAK TORNADO AND MINOR DAMAGE WAS REPORTED AT LANI KAI.
17:09 UTCWATER SPOUT5 Se Punta RassaLee, FLVIDEO ON SOCIAL MEDIA SHOWS A WATERSPOUT BRIEFLY MOVING ONSHORE AS A WEAK TORNADO AND MINOR DAMAGE WAS REPORTED AT LANI KAI.
17:46 UTCNON-TSTM WND GST 482 Wnw East NaplesCollier, FLASOS STATION KAPF NAPLES MUNICIPAL REPORTED A WIND GUST OF 48MPH AT 12:46PM AS A GUSTY SHOWER MOVED THROUGH THE AREA. SITE ELEVATION IS 7 FEET.
18:28 UTCNON-TSTM WND GST 422 N Marco IslandCollier, FLMESONET STATION FW8551 MARCO ISLAND REPORTED A WIND GUST OF 42MPH AS A GUSTY SHOWER MOVED THROUGH THE AREA. SITE ELEVATION IS UNKNOWN.

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 March 12, 2022

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 127:45 AM ESTEF1Marion, FL26.665
March 128:06 AM ESTEF1Hernando, FL5.8100$50,000
March 129:03 AM ESTEF1Putnam, FL5.370
March 1211:45 AM ESTEF1Highlands, FL0.750

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.