EF0 tornado, Port Everglades to Ft Lauderdale, Florida, January 6, 2024

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

January 6, 2024

Touchdown

5:47 PM EST (22:47 UTC)

Lifted

5:50 PM EST (22:50 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.6 miles (2.5 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Broward County

Touchdown point

26.108, -80.130

Lift-off point

26.120, -80.109

Record number

2401061647-01

33 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.

• bent temporary fence poles
• bent temporary fencing poles
• Roof damaged with tiles displaced.
• Plywood sheets thrown over bent fence

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 trough to the north, a surface low pressure system moving across the Southeast U.S. pulled a warm front across South Florida on the morning of January 6th. This brought plenty of warm air and diurnal instability to the area ahead of a cold front, which was the source of lift to spark several showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. Some thunderstorms became severe, producing a funnel cloud and two tornadoes.

A tornado affected the downtown Fort Lauderdale area on the evening of January 6th. First visible signs of damage were along SE 12TH ST where large branches were down in front of a home. The tornado then traveled 1.5 miles northeast through portions of Rio Vista Isles, across the New River, and then across several streets just south of Sunset Lake before lifting in the vicinity of East Las Olas Blvd per video evidence. Most of the damage observed along the path was minor tree, roof, and power line damage. Therefore, the tornado is rated as an EF-0 with estimated maximum winds near 80 mph, however, most of the damage was likely in the 60-70 mph range. Damage amounts are estimated.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS MFL issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:45 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:57 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.

Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood (FLL), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Miami radar (KAMX), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:45 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 2024 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.