EF0 tornado, Hudson to Aripeka, Florida, May 12, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF0, preliminary

Date

May 12, 2026

Touchdown

2:14 PM EDT (18:14 UTC)

Lifted

2:19 PM EDT (18:19 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

1.2 miles (1.9 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Pasco County

Touchdown point

28.349, -82.707

Lift-off point

28.356, -82.689

Highest wind the damage implies

85 mph

Surveyed by

NWS TBW

The office's name for it

Hudson Tornado

Survey last edited

May 18, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

A storm exhibiting supercell characteristics for multiple hours while offshore moved ashore with a tornado estimated to have touched down around 1814 UTC (2:14 PM EDT) west of U.S. Hwy 19 near Hudson in Pasco County, while continuing to exhibit a distinct rotational signature via KTBW WSR-88D and TTPA TDWR. Damage was initially observed along Saltwater Blvd, where a tree branch was snapped and fell onto a power line. Additional damage points were noted to manufactured homes further east along Saltwater Blvd -- one having its rear screened porch lifted from its base attachment and partially shifted, along with metal roofing peeled and tossed across the street, and another suffering partial roof loss with metal roofing above its garage lifted and peeled off. Additional damage was noted north of Saltwater Blvd, with a family residence along Neptune Drive having approximately five to ten feet of fascia peeled off the side of the home near the roof. Neighboring manufactured homes located approximately a quarter-mile to the east along Puffin Lane experienced rear porch roof and lanai damage, with one home losing part of its aluminum roof as it was peeled from the back of the home and lofted over the home and into a vehicle parked in its front yard, and also onto the street in front of the home. The neighboring home just to its east had its rear lanai peeled from the home and tossed around it onto a metal fence across the street from the home. Along the adjacent Osprey Lane to the north, a large pine tree had its top snapped off, and a small wooden outdoor shed was collapsed, while on adjacent Heron and Curlew Lanes to the north, homes suffered partial carport aluminum panel loss and partial aluminum roofing material loss, respectively. The final damage point noted west of U.S. Hwy 19 consisted of small to medium sized branches snapped and broken from trees near the intersection of Gull Lane and Delmar Drive. The tornado then crossed U.S. Hwy 19 with the radar signature becoming increasingly disorganized shortly thereafter, and it is estimated that the tornado dissipated sometime around 1819 UTC (2:19 PM EDT) between Whitby Road and Lakeshore Blvd after tracking for just over one mile.

Written by NWS TBW in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

18 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TBW, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Approximately 5-10 feet of fascia peeled off of side of home near the roof along with screen ripped from most of the lanai.
• Large branch snapped and broken from tree. Additional tree damage evident in inaccessible area further from roadway.
• Collapse of small outdoor shed.
• Initial damage point identified. Small to medium pine branch snapped from tree and fell onto nearby power line.

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

A quasi-stationary surface boundary draped west to east across the northern peninsula and an approaching upper-level disturbance created an environment of favorable shear and instability that produced 2 EF-0 tornadoes near Hudson and Shady Hills in Pasco County.

A storm exhibiting supercell characteristics for multiple hours while offshore moved ashore with a tornado estimated to have touched down around 1814 UTC (2:14 PM EDT) near Hudson in Pasco County, while continuing to exhibit a rotational signature via |KTBW WSR-88D and TTPA TDWR. Damage was initially observed along Saltwater Blvd, where a tree branch was snapped and fell onto a power line. Additional damage points were noted further east along Saltwater Blvd, with two homes suffering partial roof damage or loss. Additional homes suffered various degrees of roof, lanai or carport damage at points northward across Puffin, Heron and Curlew Lanes, while tree damage was noted across nearby Osprey and Gull Lanes. The tornado then crossed U.S. Hwy 19 before the radar signature became increasingly disorganized shortly thereafter, and it is likely that the tornado dissipated sometime around 1819 UTC (2:19 PM EDT) between Whitby Road and Lakeshore Blvd after traveling for just over one mile. Maximum peak wind of 85 mph.

The development of a second circulation became apparent west of Shady Hills around 20 minutes after the circulation associated with the Hudson tornado weakened, and it is estimated that a tornado touched down near Gladwin Avenue to the west of East Road |at approximately 1843 UTC (2:43 PM EDT). Damage from this tornado consisted largely of snapped tree limbs and branches, although a large tree was uprooted and downed onto a mobile home along Eden Avenue near the intersection of East Road. The tornado moved very slowly east and east-southeast while appearing to exhibit a bit of a binary interaction with the remnant circulation that produced the Hudson tornado that was located to its east, before radar indicated it likely dissipated around 1848 UTC (2:48 PM EDT), less than one mile from where it is estimated to have touched down. Maximum peak wind of 85 mph.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS TBW issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:41 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:30 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. The outlook in force was issued at 16:27 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.

Brooksville (Asos) (BKV), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:13 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 2026 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

1 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.