Hurricane Irma

The NHC Tropical Cyclone Report on Irma can be found here.

Tornadoes

A potent storm system developed and tracked quickly eastward across the Gulf of Mexico, and toward the state of Florida during Saturday January 16, 2016. The impacts from this storm reached west-central and southwest Florida during the early morning hours of Sunday January 17, 2016. A squall line of strong to severe thunderstorm, just ahead of the cold front, produced periodic wind damage and isolated tornadoes as it quickly moved ashore across west-central and southwest Florida, and pushed across the state. Two EF2 tornadoes touched down, one near Siesta Key in Sarasota Conty and the other near Duette in Manatee County. Two adults were killed and four others injured when their mobile home rolled over and was destroyed by the tornado in Manatee County.

Tropical Storm Debby

The NHC Tropical Cyclone Report on Debby can be found here.

Central Florida Super Fog

Drivers on central Florida’s Interstate 4 in Polk County near mile marker 55 encountered a blinding mixture of smoke and fog that has crept onto the highway during the early morning hours of January 9, 2008. Seventy cars and trucks collided resulting in 5 deaths and 38 injuries. The dangerous conditions were the result of a prescribed burn by the FWC that went awry. The link to the Storm Events Database for this event can be found here.

Land O' Lakes Tornado

A strong cold front combined with the remnants of Tropical Depression Olga to produce hazardous weather in west central Florida. A EF1 tornado formed from a long-lived supercell thunderstorm that moved onshore from the Gulf of Mexico. The link to the Storm Events Database for this tornado can be found here.

Tornadoes Strike Cape Coral and Fort Myers Beach

A rapidly intensifying thunderstorm, developing from just south of Fort Myers Beach northward into Cape Coral, spawned two tornadoes in southwest Lee County, during the evening of Sunday, September 16, 2007. The first tornado began as a waterspout southwest of Fort Myers Beach making landfall on the beach as an EF0 tornado, stirring up a large amount of sand and causing roof damage to a resort hotel, and blew down a light metal awning of a nearby restaurant. Minutes later, a second tornado touched down in south Cape Coral as a EF1 tornado producing substantial property damage, with property damage assessments estimated at $4 million, not including vehicles, boats, fences, sheds, and utility infrastructure. The link to the Storm Events Database for these tornadoes can be found here.

Sumter County Tornado

A developing area of low pressure over the western Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, February 1 intensified and moved off the mid-Atlantic coast Friday. Numerous thunderstorms developed out ahead of and along the associated cold front that pushed into southern Florida late Friday. The first tornado of the year to use the Enhanced Fujita Scale occurred just after 3 AM Friday February 2nd and touched down as an EF3 tornado in The Villages in northeast Sumter County. The link to the Storm Events Database for this tornado can be found here.

Tornado Hits Tampa Bay Golf and Country Club

A small F2 tornado, about 100 yards wide with winds up to 125 mph, rapidly developed within a line of thunderstorms at around 11:20 AM EST on December 25, 2006. This line of thunderstorms was out ahead of a cold front that was moving across the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The tornado which affected the Tampa Bay Golf and Country Club, located a few miles west of San Antonio, Florida, caused over $1 million in damage, but only two injuries. One hundred and one homes in the community had damage, twenty-one of which were considered heavily damaged, and six destroyed. The link to the Storm Events Database for this tornado can be found here.

Tornadoes Hit Port Charlotte Area

A small F2 tornado rapidly developed near the merger of the east and west coast sea breezes at around 7:17 PM EDT June 21, 2006 over Port Charlotte. This tornado caused an estimated $500,000 in damage and three injuries. Another F0 tornado effected the Harbor View mobile home park along the Peace River causing an estimated $30,000 in damage. The link to the Storm Events Database for these tornadoes can be found here.

Flash Flooding Drenches Tampa Bay Area

The combination of tropical moisture flowing into a line of thunderstorms and an approaching upper level disturbance allowed a train of intense thunderstorms to repeatedly cross over parts of the Tampa Bay area. Between 8 and more than 11 inches of rain fell in roughly a five hour period in a five mile wide stripe extending from Madeira Beach northeast through Pinellas Park, then across Old Tampa Bay to west Tampa, including Tampa International Airport. The link to the Storm Events Database for this event can be found here.

Hurricane Wilma

Wilma formed and became an extremely intense hurricane over the northwestern Caribbean Sea. It had the all-time lowest central pressure for an Atlantic basin hurricane, and it devastated the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula. Wilma also inflicted extensive damage over southern Florida, affecting locations mainly from Punta Gorda to Arcadia to Sebring southward in our area. The NHC Tropical Cyclone Report on Wilma can be found here.

Punta Gorda Waterspout/Tornado

A waterspout developed just north of Punta Gorda during the evening of July 15th over Charlotte Harbor. The spout fortunately remained near or over water for most of its life, but for the short period on land as an F0 tornado. Only minor damage was reported, mostly to trees with one residence sustaining minor damage. The link to the Storm Events Database for this waterspout/tornado can be found here.

Numerous Hail Storms with some Wind Damage

A northward moving front, combined with upper level energy and an increasingly unstable atmosphere contributed to the development of severe thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening of May 3rd, and again during the morning of May 4th. The unusual late season event, more typical in Oklahoma than in Florida in May, produced at least one bona-fide supercell thunderstorm on the 3rd. The predominant event was large hail, up to baseball size in diameter, but there were a few reports of damaging winds. The link to the Storm Events Database for these days can be found here.

Seminole Heights Microburst

A thunderstorm microburst crashed down on Seminole Heights and caused widespread but relatively minor damage along the 1.5 mile path. Damage included a few roofs peeled back, windows blown out of at least one business, dozens of trees and large limbs blown down, and at least a dozen power wires and transformers blown down. About 2000 residents were without power shortly after the storm passed. All this was done in only a minute's time in any given location. The link to the Storm Events Database for this event can be found here.

Wind Damage and Storm Tides

Just 24 hours after an historic white Christmas in Deep South Texas, the same storm system punched across Tampa Bay causing damaging winds, power outages, and storm tides. Overall the Christmas weekend (December 24-26) as a whole was rather lousy by Florida standards. The link to the Storm Events Database for this event can be found here.

Hurricane Jeanne

Hurricane Jeanne followed the nearly the same path across Florida as Hurricane Frances three weeks earlier and was the unprecedented fourth hurricane to strike Florida during the 2004 hurricane season. Jeanne moved ashore along the east coast of Florida near Stuart late on September 25th as a Category 3 storm then tracked west-northwest through northern Highlands and southern Polk Counties before bearing north through northeastern Hillsborough, eastern Pasco, central Hernando, western Citrus and weakening further as it traversed Levy County. Jeanne kept Category 1 hurricane strength across much of central Florida before being downgraded to a tropical storm between Polk and Pasco County. The NHC Tropical Cyclone Report on Henri can be found here.

Hurricane Frances

Frances made landfall just after midnight on September 5th near Vero Beach as a Category 2 storm. The hurricane continued to move slowly west northwestward across central Florida to near Bartow by 2 pm, and just northeast of Tampa by 8 pm, when it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm. It then emerged back into the Gulf of Mexico near Hudson shortly before midnight, meaning it took almost 24 hours to move through the peninsula. Frances continued northwestward through the northern gulf of Mexico, making a second landfall on the afternoon of September 6th in the Florida Big Bend near Tallahassee as a Tropical Storm. The NHC Tropical Cyclone Report on Henri can be found here.

Hurricane Charley

Hurricane Charley, a powerful but compact Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, roared into Southwest Florida during the late afternoon of August 13th, then raced northeast through the central Florida peninsula, reaching the Atlantic Coast near Daytona Beach in only seven hours. During its life, the storm, which packed 145 mph winds as it made landfall along the Lee County coastline, damaged or destroyed thousands of homes, knocked down tens of thousands of trees, and took out power to more than 2 million Floridians. The NHC Tropical Cyclone Report on Charley can be found here.

Tropical Storm Henri

Short-lived Tropical Storm Henri lurked about 100 miles west of the Tampa Bay metropolitan area between 5 AM September 5th and 5 AM September 6th, then weakened before accelerating across central Florida during the late morning on the 6th. Henri produced generally minor freshwater flooding and some breezy conditions near the coast. The NHC Tropical Cyclone Report on Henri can be found here.

Heavy Rain / Flooding

Deep southwest flow setup during early August, reaching it's peak between the 7th and 11th as a series of upper level disturbances moved through an upper level trough across the southeast United States. Repeating thunderstorms dumped torrential rains along much of the immediate coast, with significantly lower totals over interior west central Florida

Tornadoes

During the early evening of June 29th a quick hitting F0 tornado struck Dade City causing about 40 thousand dollars in damage. Then during the early evening of July 8th an F1 tornado struck near Lake Thonotosassa causing about 20 thousand dollars in damage. Here are the links to the Storm Events Database for the June 29th and July 8th tornadoes.

Tropical Storm Gabrielle

Gabrielle formed during the afternoon of September 13th over the southeast Gulf of Mexico and moved northeast making landfall near Venice around 8 AM EDT on September 14th as a tropical storm with 60 knot sustained winds. The storm quickly moved northeast, passing through interior west central Florida during the daylight hours of the 14th producing wind damage, overland flooding, and coastal flooding. The NHC Tropical Cyclone Report on Gabrielle can be found here.