F2 Tornado — Miami-dade, Florida

2003-03-27 · near Miami, Miami-dade, Florida

Event narrative

The tornado initially touched down in East Hialeah, near NE 2nd Street and E 4th Avenue causing F0 damage to foliage. The tornado strengthened to F1 intensity as it moved east across E 9th Avenue. It achieved a maximum intensity of F2 with a maximum width of one third mile in an area from NW 37th to 27th Avenues in the Brownsville area. The intensity decreased to F1 as it moved east through Liberty City. The intensity further decreased to F0 as the tornado turned northeast and lifted just before entering Biscayne Bay near NE 70th Street.F1 to F2 damage began in an industrial area where several warehouse roofs were damaged. One large free-span roof was nearly completely torn off. Several semi-tractor trailers, apparently empty, were toppled, one of which fell onto two cars, crushing them. The tornado moved through a residential area known as Brownsville, heavily damaging 60 houses. At one of the homes, a 65-year old male who was sitting in this house was killed when debris penetrated the structure. His wife who took shelter in the bathroom was uninjured. A total of 343 other structures sustained damage, mostly to roofs and windows. Several vehicles were rolled over. Numerous utility poles were broken, large trees were uprooted and signs were downed.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (25.7667, -80.2000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5344775. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.