EF0 tornado, Ocean Ridge, Florida, April 28, 2023

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 28, 2023

Touchdown

7:33 PM EDT (23:33 UTC)

Lifted

7:38 PM EDT (23:38 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.2 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Palm Beach County

Touchdown point

26.506, -80.080

Lift-off point

26.511, -80.069

Record number

2304281733-01

1 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 79 mph.

• NE corner of roof peeled off and awning twisted.

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

With the influence of a mid-level disturbance to the north, a surface frontal boundary sagged into South-Central Florida which put South Florida near a source of lift, combined with surface instability from diurnal heating. Additional shortwave impulses added to the convective activity and led to severe thunderstorm producing a tornado in Broward County on April 28th.

A tornado affected southern portions of Boynton Beach on the evening of April 28th. The first visible signs of tornadic damage were just west of I-95 and south of SW 23rd Ave in the form of several broken large tree branches and a royal palm tree partially stripped of its fronds. The tornado moved ENE continuing it's path as it crossed I-95, with reports of traffic stopping or slowing down as the circulation crossed the interstate. The tornado then moved through portions of the High Point community where about a half-dozen homes sustained minor roof uplift near the corners of the structures, awnings twisted or completely torn off and landing several houses away, and several large tree branches and trunks broken. The final indication of tornadic damage was a downed small palm tree at Main Blvd, east of SW 3rd St, just south of the Boynton Beach Little League Park. The damage path was sporadic in spots, with large tree branches or trunks snapped right next to other trees and buildings with no visible signs of damage. Therefore, the tornado is rated as an EF-0 with estimated maximum winds near 80 mph. Most of the winds along the damage path were estimated in the 65-75 mph range. Damage amounts are estimated.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 20:00 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.

Lantana (LNA), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Miami radar (KAMX), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:31 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 2023 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.