Alert archive / Florida / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 1, NWS Jacksonville, FL

January 16, 1997Clay County, Saint Johns County, Florida

NWS Jacksonville, FL issued this tornado warning at Jan 16, 1997, 6:10 AM EST for Clay County, Saint Johns County, Florida. It was in force for 65 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Jan 16, 1997, 6:10 AM EST (11:10 UTC)
Expired: Jan 16, 1997, 7:15 AM EST
In force: 65 min
Issued by: NWS Jacksonville, FL
Area: Whole counties

Counties Clay County, FL, Saint Johns County, FL

The radar

The Jacksonville radar (KJAX), 60 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 11:13 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

The watch it was issued in

The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
Jan 16, 3:45 AM EST	Tornado Watch	SPC	5 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Jacksonville, FL (KJAX), launched 00:00Z, 11.2 hours before the alert went out and 62 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 2 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -99 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 721 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 79 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 281 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

000 
TTAA00 KJAX 161112 RRA
TORJAX
FLC019-109-161215-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSONVILLE FL
610 AM EST THU JAN 16 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN JACKSONVILLE HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  715 AM EST
FOR PERSONS IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONSS...
 
IN NORTH FLORIDA
 
   ...CLAY COUNTY...ST. JOHNS COUNTY
 
AND THE ADJOINING COASTAL WATERS.
 
 
AT 0605 AM NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR DETECTED A POSSIBLE
TORNADO MOVING THROUGH CLAY COUNTY NEAR MIDDLEBURG AND THIS STORM WILL
MOVE INTO SOUTH ORANGE PARK AND TOWARD SWITZERLAND IN ST JOHNS COUNTY BY
0630 AM. A TORNADO WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR NORTH FLORIDA UNTIL 0900 AM.
 
 
IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF A TORNADO...THE SAFEST PLACE IS A
BASEMENT.  GET UNDER A WORKBENCH OR PIECE OF STURDY FURNITURE.
IF NO BASEMENT IS AVAILABLE...SEEK SHELTER IN AN INTERIOR ROOM
SUCH AS A CLOSET ON THE LOWEST FLOOR.  USE BLANKETS...PILLOWS...
OR CUSHIONS TLO COVER YOUR BODY.  AVOID WINDOWS.
 
 
WELSH/PETERSON

The office that day

Everything else NWS Jacksonville, FL issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jan 16, 3:36 AM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Hamilton, Suwannee	69 min
Jan 16, 4:33 AM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Columbia	57 min
Jan 16, 6:23 AM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Duval	67 min
Jan 16, 6:53 AM EST	Tornado Warning	JAX	Putnam	52 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Florida, 1997 Every tornado warning in 1997 Tornadoes in 1997

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.