Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2023

Unrated tornado, Pinellas County, Florida, June 16, 2023

This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Pinellas County on June 16, 2023, touching down at 4:10 PM EDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2.

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 mph

    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. Unratedthis tornado

    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
Unrated
Date
June 16, 2023
Touchdown
4:10 PM EDT (20:10 UTC)
Lifted
4:11 PM EDT (20:11 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
2
County
Pinellas County
Touchdown point
27.980, -82.829
Lift-off point
27.980, -82.829
Record number
2306161410-01

The warnings

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal 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

8.2 hours before the tornado, 52 km from the path. June 16, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2023-06-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1874 joules per kilogram, CIN -49, lifted condensation level 874 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 2023-06-16The 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 202 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1874 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-49 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1240 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
874 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
202 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
209 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.6
Supercell composite
12.8
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.8 hours after it, 52 km from the path. June 17, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2023-06-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 416 joules per kilogram, CIN -238, lifted condensation level 1282 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 2023-06-17The 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 126 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 knots.193958Sfc1 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
416 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-238 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2709 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1282 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
126 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
182 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:06 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2023 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 16, 2023

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 161:15 AM CDTEF1Panola, TX to LA7.7844$100,000
June 162:20 AM EDTEF0Taylor, FL7.2100
June 163:09 AM EDTEF0Jefferson, FL6.4100
June 163:30 AM EDTEF0Taylor, FL3.475
June 163:45 AM EDTEF1Taylor, FL1.380$50,000
June 164:40 AM CDTEF1Warren, MS8.5900$85,000
June 164:54 AM CDTEF1Hinds, MS6.5800$25,000
June 168:00 AM CDTEF1Mobile, AL7.030
June 1611:10 AM EDTEF1Chester, PA1.8250
June 1612:55 PM EDTEF0Burlington, NJ3.4200
June 164:36 PM EDTEF0Isle of Wight, VA8.5100$25,000
June 164:29 PM MDTEF0Lincoln, CO0.020
June 1612:21 AM CDTEF0Mobile, AL3.980

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.