1925 Miami tornado
On Sunday, April 5, 1925, an intense tornado hit the northern edge of Miami in South Florida, killing five people and injuring 35. The deadliest tornado to affect Dade County, it was rated F3 on the Fujita scale—one of only two such twisters recorded there. Up to wide, it formed over the Everglades near Hialeah and moved northeast, toward the Atlantic Ocean, destroying or damaging about 50 homes, with losses of $250,000.
Tornado summary
At about 1:00 p.m. local time, Hialeah Herald editor J. W. Wendler first noted a funnel cloud to the southwest. Nearby golfers also observed it around that time. Attended by damaging hail, a tornado formed along the Miami Canal near 36th Street, but soon dissipated. Seen for miles, at the Hialeah Municipal Golf Course it killed a mule, overturned wagons, hurled a few trucks, snagged a clubhouse post, and unroofed a shed. It redeveloped at the White Belt Dairy, Florida's largest dairy farm, wrecking a mess hall, four frame homes, an apartment, 10 motor trucks, and five automobiles, with a loss of $100,000. A car was lofted and set down in a field, while a barn was partly unroofed. Three cows were lifted off the ground, carried through the air, and let down uninjured. A woman hospitalized by flying debris died, and several other severe injuries occurred. The Miami Herald stated that the dairy was "a scrambled mess of everything", including utensils, furniture, and wood bits. Hundreds of onlookers swarmed the area, forcing police to deploy.The tornado then headed north, ripping up trees and demolishing six or more homes. It "literally picked up" a house, carried it over a road, and left it "a mass of kindling wood", the Herald reported. Another house lost its combination roof and garage. A barn and house were swept off their foundations and tossed. At Elizabeth Park the tornado tore apart 10 homes, leaving homesites bare, and killed hundreds of chickens. It destroyed 12 more homes at Hillside Acres. As it crossed northwestern Miami, thousands of sightseers watched the tornado. The twister then briefly lifted before reforming near the Little River, where it struck several homes, leveling a large vacant frame house. A few people died at the West Wood Inn, near the river. Meteorologist Richard Gray, writing in the Monthly Weather Review, remarked that at this point the tornado resembled a "very slender cone extending in a straight line" from cloud to ground.
After passing Little River, the tornado affected a thinly settled area, becoming obscured by rain. Entering Biscayne Park, it destroyed three homes, one of which was newly built, and afflicted a few automobiles. "Only skeleton walls" of a two-story stucco home were left upright, the Herald noted, and large roof pieces were wrapped around trees. After destroying some power poles, the tornado then moved out over Biscayne Bay and was no longer sighted. For most of its path, the tornado was less than wide, moved at about, and once stalled for five minutes, often lifting for short periods. Gray likened debris swirling around the funnel to smoke from an oil fire. The thunderstorm that spawned the tornado affected the communities of Hialeah, Ojus, West Little River, Biscayne Park, and Lemon City, tracking from Homestead to Fort Lauderdale. Hundreds of people were homeless after the storm, and along its path the tornado felled large trees. Observers saw up to seven funnel clouds at once. A cookstove was tossed. Based on damage photographs, the tornado is estimated to have been an F3 on the Fujita scale, the only other such tornado to hit Miami having occurred in 1959; to date it is the only deadly twister to strike Dade County, belonging to a small group of tornadoes that have killed three or more people in Florida.