Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2023

EF0 tornado, Aladdin City, Florida, May 25, 2023

This EF0 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Miami-Dade County on May 25, 2023, touching down at 1:20 PM EDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $50,000 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
May 25, 2023
Touchdown
1:20 PM EDT (17:20 UTC)
Lifted
1:22 PM EDT (17:22 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$50,000
County
Miami-Dade County
Touchdown point
25.588, -80.434
Lift-off point
25.581, -80.429
Record number
2305251120-01

The damage survey

8 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 80 mph.

  • Spot where 18-wheeler flipped on its side. One injury
  • About 500 feet of chain link fence blown down to the south.
  • Avocado tree branches broken

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

What the Weather Service recorded

With the influence of a mid-level trough to the north, South Florida was provided with a source of lift, which combined with surface instability from diurnal heating to develop scattered showers and thunderstorms on the afternoon of May 25th. One of these thunderstorms produced a brief tornado in southwest Miami-Dade County.

A thunderstorm produced a short-lived EF-0 tornado in Redland, starting around|SW 192nd St before traveling south along SW 147th Ave until almost SW 200th St. Several trees were snapped and/or uprooted. A semi tractor trailer was knocked on its side by the tornado near SW 196th St and the driver was injured. Most of the winds along the brief damage path were estimated in the 55-65 mph range, with a peak estimate of 80 mph. Damage amounts are estimated.

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
17:46 UTC19:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryMFL
17:56 UTC18:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMFL

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 16:16 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.

Miami, FL (KMFL), 12:00Z

5.3 hours before the tornado, 30 km from the path. May 25, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2023-05-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1410 joules per kilogram, CIN -10, lifted condensation level 747 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, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2023-05-25The 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 15 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
1410 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-10 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1756 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
747 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
11 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
32 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

6.7 hours after it, 30 km from the path. May 26, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2023-05-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1531 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 909 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, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2023-05-26The 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 23 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 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
1531 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2938 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
909 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
23 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
44 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 3 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:19 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
16:52 UTCTSTM WND GST 45Miami InternationaMiami-Dade, FLA WIND GUST OF 45 MPH FROM THE SSW WAS MEASURED AT THE NWS ASOS STATION KMIA AT MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.
17:20 UTCTORNADO2 Nw GouldsMiami-Dade, FL*** 1 INJ *** CORRECTS PREVIOUS TORNADO REPORT FROM 2 NW GOULDS. PRELIMINARY NWS STORM SURVEY INFORMATION: A THUNDERSTORM PRODUCED A SHORT-LIVED EF-0 TORNADO STARTING AROUND SW 192ND ST THAT TRAVELED SOUTH ALONG SW 147TH
17:20 UTCTORNADO2 Nw GouldsMiami-Dade, FL*** 1 INJ *** PRELIMINARY NWS STORM SURVEY INFORMATION: A THUNDERSTORM PRODUCED A SHORT-LIVED EF-0 TORNADO STARTING AROUND SW 196TH ST THAT TRAVELED SOUTH ALONG SW 147TH AVE UNTIL ALMOST SW 200TH ST. SEVERAL TREES WERE S
17:24 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD3 Nw GouldsMiami-Dade, FLREPORTS FROM TRAINED SPOTTERS, SOCIAL MEDIA, AND THE WEATHER OBSERVER AT MIAMI EXECUTIVE AIRPORT OF A FUNNEL CLOUD IN THE REDLAND WEST OF SOUTH MIAMI HEIGHTS. THE FUNNEL WAS CLOSE TO THE GROUND BASED ON PICTURES AND VIDE
17:30 UTCHAIL 0.252 Wnw North MiamiMiami-Dade, FLBROADCAST MEDIA RELAYED A VIDEO OF PEA SIZE HAIL NEAR THE GOLDEN GLADES INTERCHANGE.
17:42 UTCTSTM WND GST 49North Perry AirporBroward, FLA WIND GUST OF 49 MPH FROM THE ESE WAS MEASURED AT THE NWS ASOS STATION KHWO AT NORTH PERRY AIRPORT.
17:44 UTCTSTM WND GST 561 N Country WalkMiami-Dade, FLA WIND GUST OF 56 MPH FROM THE NE WAS MEASURED AT THE NWS ASOS STATION KTMB AT MIAMI EXECUTIVE AIRPORT.
18:00 UTCHAIL 0.881 Wnw Cooper CityBroward, FLREPORT RECEIVED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA OF NICKEL SIZE HAIL IN COOPER CITY NEAR GRIFFIN AND HIATUS ROADS.

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

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

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.