EF0 tornado, Fort Myers Villas to Cape Coral, Florida, May 17, 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 17, 2026

Touchdown

3:17 PM EDT (19:17 UTC)

Lifted

3:18 PM EDT (19:18 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Lee County

Touchdown point

26.557, -81.871

Lift-off point

26.559, -81.872

Highest wind the damage implies

65 mph

Surveyed by

NWS TBW

The office's name for it

Fort Myers Landspout Tornado 1

Survey last edited

May 22, 2026

Record number

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

A landspout tornado was observed at 3:17 PM EDT near the intersection U.S. Hwy 41/S Cleveland Ave and Gorham Ave, where a citizen submitted video of a rotating cloud base and funnel near the Wawa and Culvers, and later confirmed that they witnessed a ground circulation with surface and lofted dust and small debris. No significant damage was reported, and no other reports, pictures or videos have been received indicating that the track extended beyond that location.

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

A cluster of thunderstorms developing and propagating northward across southwest Florida and Lee County produced three EF-0 landspout tornadoes during the afternoon that affected parts of Fort Myers and Cape Coral in Lee County.

A landspout tornado was observed at 3:17 PM EDT just to the east of U.S. Hwy 41/S Cleveland Ave and north of Woodland Blvd, where a citizen submitted video of a rotating cloud base and funnel near Wawa and Culver's, and later confirmed that they witnessed a ground circulation with surface and lofted dust and small debris. No significant damage was reported, and no other reports, pictures or videos have been confirmed indicating that the track extended beyond that location. Maximum estimated peak wind of 65 mph.

A landspout tornado that was likely associated with the circulation from a previous landspout that dissipated minutes earlier is estimated to have formed around 3:25 PM EDT approximately 1.75 miles to the northwest of the previous landspout, where damage was first noted along Reynard Ave in the Tanglewood area where a large tree had numerous medium to large branches snapped. Continuing northwest, branches and limbs were snapped at multiple locations across Cumberland and Woodwind Courts, and a home near Tanglewood Pkwy had a large tree uprooted in its yard. Additional footage was submitted from the Tanglewood area depicting lawn furniture and yard decor scattered about, along with fence and roof damage, and a video taken by a resident along Westminster Dr at 3:28 PM EDT showed airborne debris along with indications of the ground circulation as the landspout neared the McGregor Gardens area and Argyle Dr and McGregor Blvd. The circulation continued northwest across the Georgetown area just south of Colonial Blvd and began crossing the Caloosahatchee River just to the west-southwest of McGregor Colonial Memorial Park, and to the south of the Midpoint Bridge around 3:30 PM EDT. Videos taken by the public showed surface spray associated with the circulation as it approached and crossed the Midpoint Bridge west of McGregor Colonial Memorial Park and continued northwest toward the central section of the river north of the bridge, where it is estimated to have dissipated around 3:31 PM EDT before reaching the western shore of the river. Maximum estimated winds of 75 mph.

A landspout tornado formed over Cape Coral just north of the Sovereign Canal near SW 28th St around 3:35 PM EDT in association with a separate segment of the cluster of thunderstorms, with evidence of the circulation visible in video taken by residents along SW 4th Ave and SW 5th Ave. Footage from SW 4th Ave showed a pickup truck in the driveway of a home being displaced a number of feet as the circulation passed by the location, and footage from the SW 5th Ave location showed the funnel of the landspout and the surface circulation behind a home over the Niagara Canal. Additional footage of the circulation was taken approximately one-quarter mile to the northwest near the Seabell Canal, where footage from a home on the southern edge of the canal along SW 26th Ter showed the circulation blowing lawn chairs around and lofting additional unidentified debris, while also knocking over and blowing around vinyl fencing in the backyard of a home on the opposite/northern side of the canal along SW 26th St. A few additional reports and photos from the vicinity also indicated fence and some roof damage as the circulation neared the intersection of Skyline Blvd and Veterans Pkwy before it is estimated to have dissipated around 3:38 PM EDT, as no other reports, pictures or videos have been confirmed to indicate that the track extended further. Maximum estimated winds of 75 mph.

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

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:29 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 Myers/Page Field (FMY), 3 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 138 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:20 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

47 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.