Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2025

EF0 tornado, Loxahatchee to Wellington, Florida, May 12, 2025

From Loxahatchee to Wellington, this EF0 tornado ran 5.1 miles across Palm Beach County on May 12, 2025, touching down at 6:12 PM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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 12, 2025
Touchdown
6:12 PM EDT (22:12 UTC)
Lifted
6:17 PM EDT (22:17 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
5.1 miles (8.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000
County
Palm Beach County
Touchdown point
26.748, -80.301
Lift-off point
26.811, -80.256
Record number
2505121612-01

The damage survey

22 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 85 mph.

  • Small portion of wood fence blown to N
  • Likely north extent of visible damage

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

A surface front associated with an area of low pressure moving across the southern United States slowly approached Florida from the eastern Gulf. The moist air mass ahead of the front allowed for flooding from excessive rainfall and for strong to severe thunderstorms to develop.

A supercell thunderstorm moved northeast across Palm Beach County, generally from Lion Country Safari, through Westlake, and into the Acreage. This storm did not produce a continuous tornado, however, brief EF0 level touchdowns were identified in the damage survey. In general, the majority of the damage was located in the Acreage and was confined to minor tree damage at the low end of the EF0 scale, and damage to outdoor equipment and furniture. There were, however, a couple locations where large pines were snapped near the trunk, resulting in a high end EF0 classification.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
05:41 UTC09:15 UTCFlood WatchMFL
08:48 UTC10:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryMFL
22:06 UTC01:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryMFL
22:22 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMFL
23:16 UTC01:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryMFL
23:24 UTC00:00 UTCTornado 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. 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.

Miami, FL (KMIA), 12:00Z

10.2 hours before the tornado, 107 km from the path. May 12, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2025-05-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 193 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 441 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, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 2025-05-12The 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 53 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
193 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
772 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
441 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
53 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
78 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

1.8 hours after it, 107 km from the path. May 13, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2025-05-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 309 joules per kilogram, CIN -51, lifted condensation level 1001 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, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 2025-05-13The 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 139 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
309 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-51 J/kg
Surface CAPE
512 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1001 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
139 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
184 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

West Palm Beach (F45), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:15 UTC80.673.4130° 8 kt151013.9
20:35 UTC80.673.4140° 13 kt221013.2
21:15 UTC7775.2140° 8 kt141012.5-RA
21:35 UTC75.275.2140° 8 kt161012.5-RA
21:55 UTC75.275.2180° 8 kt141013.2VCTS -RA
22:15 UTC75.275.2180° 3 kt1013.5+RA
22:35 UTC73.473.4240° 13 kt201013.2+RA
22:55 UTC73.473.4280° 17 kt211013.5VCTS +RA
23:15 UTC73.473.4260° 7 kt1014.6VCTS +RA
23:35 UTC73.473.4300° 4 kt1014.2-RA
23:55 UTC73.473.40° 0 kt1014.6-RA

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

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 131 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:12 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
22:09 UTCTORNADO4 Ene Lion Country SafaPalm Beach, FLUpdates LSR to Tornado event type after survey determined EF0 tornado occurred. Playground equipment knocked down, chairs blown over, small trees blown over/uprooted.
22:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Nnw The AcreagePalm Beach, FLSeveral pictures showing uprooted trees, torn tree branches, pieces of a broken fence, and tilted/leaning chain-link fences. Reports coincide with a supercell that moved across the area around that time. Possible tornado
22:16 UTCTORNADO2 Nnw The AcreagePalm Beach, FLUpdates LSR to Tornado event type after survey determined EF0 tornado occurred. Several pictures showing uprooted trees, torn tree branches, pieces of a broken fence, and tilted/leaning chain-link fences. Reports coincid
22:20 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Ene Lion Country SafaPalm Beach, FLPlayground equipment knocked down, chairs blown over, small trees blown over/uprooted.
00:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Nne Boynton BeachPalm Beach, FLTrained spotter reported broken tree branches and strewn patio furniture in the Canterbury neighborhood in Boynton Beach. Possible tornado.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 12, 2025

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 123:24 AM EDTEF1Aiken, SC1.3250
May 125:06 PM EDTEF1Edgecombe, NC2.1100$50,000
May 127:31 PM EDTEF0Abbeville, SC1.720
May 128:55 PM EDTUnratedLake, FL1.550

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.