FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA TORNADO OUTBREAK

[chadtm80]

THE NIGHT OF FEB 22 (SAT) WILL BE THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
CENTRAL FLORIDA TORNADO OUTBREAK. 7 CONFIRMED TORNADOES (3 F3)...42
FATALITIES...260 INJURIES...700 STRUCTURES DESTROYED.

[isobar]

The deadliest tornado outbreak in FL history. Those F3's were 200 mph, almost F4's, extremely rare for FL. The one that went through Kissimmee was 250 yds wide. The fact that they struck during the night surely contributed to the death toll.

Chad, You seem pretty close to the one that went through Sanford and ended up near Osteen. :o

I remember Universal in Orlando was scheduled to open their Twister simulation exhibit that week, but wisely postponed it out of respect to the community.

[Rainband]

Yea, my aunt & uncle have a place in Kissimee. They said it was really bad. I saw it on tv but can't imagine what it looked like in person. That night I was at work looking at the ehcos intensify as the rolled in from the gulf and knew something bad would come from them Just a feeling I guess because I am no weather expert.

[Kevin_Wx]

No kidding here! My dad heard something like a freight train go above our house around the 1 AM hour. He rushed outside and saw a tornado about one-hundred feet in the air, DIRECTLY ABOVE OUR ROOF! He said it was especially scary to look at when the lightning was illuminating it. It was very large in diameter. He probably shouldn't have been out in it given the fact that tornadoes are highly unpredictable motion-wise, but it was the sight of a lifetime. That tornado was the same one that formed near Winter Garden and eventually made it's way northeastward towards the east coast. Strangely enough, I slept through it all. I remember the mornign that my dad woke me up with the news that 42 people had died. It came as quite a shock. The longevity, intensity, and frequency of the torandoes in that outbreak were comparible to a mid-western US torando outbreak. That is something that is rarely seen in Florida, and usually only during extreme El-Nino events (97-98 was the mother of them all).

Comparing the possible event this weekend the the one 4 years ago isn't a very good thing to do. For one, the 98 outbreak was actually accompanied by a low pressure area coming off of the state. The radar on the night of the 22nd looked like armagedon was comming to Florida. The event this weekend will be a squall line with the low pressure area over the Tennesse Valley. The only way we will have a tornado outbreak is for storms ahead of the front to develop, which btw, looks like a good possibility because the atmosphere will be startign to destabilize very soon instead of just before the front comes through. At the same time, I can only see isolated but strong tornadoes occuring during and before the squall line. To me, this looks like much more of an event with a major problem of severe thunderstorms and very, very strong downburst winds. I wouldn't even rule out the possibility of this event being comparable to the 98 one, but in a different way with different damage. Either way, I'm sure we are in for problems late Saturday and Satruday night. And for once, it will actually be warm before the squall line passes through, something we haven't seen at all with other squall lines this winter.

Whatever happens, be prepared and vigilent. If you're not, you could become a statistic with any severe weather system that affects your area. The 1998 tornado outbreak here in Central Florida was perfect proof of that.

[isobar]

Kevin, RE: your dad's experience ... yikes! :o
Good thing it lifted over your house, or you may not be here today.

Most of the fatalities, maybe all, were people in mobile homes, RVs, and automobiles. Hundreds injured also.

[ColdFront77]

How ironic that the worse day in Florida's Weather History, there is a potential for severe thunderstorms. Goes to show, with the proper ingredients, especially moisture at all levels of the atmosphere it can rain in Florida.

Some of these winter cold fronts sure mean business, even more so when they have upper level lows behind them.