Tornadoes · United States · Puerto Rico · 2023
EF0 tornado, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, August 9, 2023
This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Puerto Rico on August 9, 2023, touching down at 12:00 PM CDT and reaching 15 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $40,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- August 9, 2023
- Touchdown
- 12:00 PM CDT (17:00 UTC)
- Lifted
- 12:05 PM CDT (17:05 UTC)
- On the ground
- 5 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.4 km)
- Path width
- 15 yards (14 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $40,000
- County
- Not recorded
- Touchdown point
- 18.451, -67.093
- Lift-off point
- 18.454, -67.094
- Record number
- 2308091100-01
What the Weather Service recorded
The combination of abundant tropical moisture from a departing tropical wave interacting with an upper-level trough north of the region produced strong afternoon thunderstorms over northwestern Puerto Rico on the 9th of August. A weak EF-0 tornado and strong outflow boundaries caused thunderstorm wind damage across the municipality of Aguadilla.
A weak tornado developed near Highway 2 in Aguadilla early |in the afternoon of Wednesday, August 9, 2023. The brief tornado primarily |impacted a structure, tearing off aluminum roofs from a garage and causing |damage to vehicles in the affected area. Additionally, associated |with this severe thunderstorm, strong gusty winds from the outflow |affected the area near Crash Boat Beach, resulting in trees falling onto |parked cars and fallen power lines.
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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:00 UTC | 19:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | JSJ |
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 surface observations
Aguadilla (TJBQ), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:50 UTC | 89.6 | 78.8 | 60° 11 kt | 17 | 1015.6 | |
| 16:50 UTC | 87.8 | 78.8 | 60° 13 kt | 19 | 1014.9 | TS |
| 17:02 UTC | 80.6 | 75.2 | 190° 10 kt | 20 | 1016.9 | +TSRA |
| 17:50 UTC | 77 | 75.2 | 50° 6 kt | 10 | 1015.6 | TSRA |
| 18:50 UTC | 77 | 73.4 | 160° 4 kt | 1014.9 | -TSRA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The San Juan radar (TJUA), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:59 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:46 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Caban | Aguadilla, PR | Several videos received from the general public, backed-up by radar data, indicated a funnel cloud over Aguadilla, near road PR-2, and road PR-459. The cloud could have touched land very briefly. |
| 17:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nnw Caban | Aguadilla, PR | Corrects previous tstm wnd dmg report from 2 NNW Caban. A report shared by social media indicated wind damage at Borinquen Bilingual School. A zinc roof from a garage was observed on the floor, as well as a few tree bran |
| 17:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ssw Rafael Hernandez | Aguadilla, PR | A report from the media indicated that a car was hit from a zinc panel, damaging one tire and part of the car. The driver had to take shelter inside a nearby building. |
| 17:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ssw Rafael Hernandez | Aguadilla, PR | Corrects previous tstm wnd dmg report from 2 SSW Rafael Hernandez. A report from the media indicated that a Toyota Yaris 2009 was hit from a zinc panel, damaging the bumper and next to the front-left tire. The driver had |
| 17:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ssw Rafael Hernandez | Aguadilla, PR | Emergency managers reported that a zinc roof fell from a garage the Police Traffic Department in Aguadilla. Estimated wind speed were of 40-50 mph. |
| 17:05 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ssw Rafael Hernandez | Aguadilla, PR | Corrects previous tstm wnd dmg report from 2 SSW Rafael Hernandez. Corrects previous tstm wnd dmg report from 2 SSW Rafael Hernandez. A report from the media indicated that a Toyota Yaris 2009 was hit from a zinc panel, |
| 17:05 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ssw Rafael Hernandez | Aguadilla, PR | Corrects previous tstm wnd dmg report from 2 SSW Rafael Hernandez. Emergency managers reported that a zinc roof fell from a garage the Police Traffic Department in Aguadilla. Estimated wind speed were of 85 mph. |
| 17:05 UTC | TORNADO | Caban | Aguadilla, PR | There was enough evidence to confirm a short-lived EF-0 tornado in Aguadilla. Reports were received from the general public, the media press, and emergency managers. |
| 17:09 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Wsw Aceitunas | Aguadilla, PR | A report received by emergency managers indicated several tree branches on the ground in Barrio. Centro Moca, in direction to the local Dairy Farm. |
| 18:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nnw Caban | Aguadilla, PR | A report shared by social media indicated wind damage at Borinquen Bilingual School. A zinc roof from a garage was observed on the floor, as well as a few tree branches. Estimated wind gusts were around 40-50 mph. |
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 Puerto RicoEvery tornado in Puerto Rico since 1950Warnings in force in Puerto Rico nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 9, 2023
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 9 | 12:44 AM EDT | EF0 | Fleming, KY | 0.3 | 75 | $150,000 |
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.