Alert archive / Florida / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 32, NWS Melbourne, FL

October 31, 1997Seminole County, Florida

NWS Melbourne, FL issued this tornado warning at Oct 31, 1997, 4:47 PM EST for Seminole County, Florida. It was in force for 43 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: Oct 31, 1997, 4:47 PM EST (21:47 UTC)
Expired: Oct 31, 1997, 5:30 PM EST
In force: 43 min
Issued by: NWS Melbourne, FL
Area: Whole counties

County Seminole County, FL

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 88 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:46 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
Oct 31, 1:45 PM EST	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), launched 12:00Z, 9.8 hours before the alert went out and 77 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: 770 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -7 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 736 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 98 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 163 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.2
Supercell composite: 2.3

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KMLB 312147 RRA
TORMLB
FLC117-312230-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL
447 PM EST FRI OCT 31 1997

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MELBOURNE FL HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 530 PM EST
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA

   ...SEMINOLE COUNTY
 
AT 445 PM...DOPPLER WEATHER RADAR AT MELBOURNE INDICATED A
THUNDERSTORM WITH A TORNADIC SIGNATURE ONE MILE EAST OF OVIEDO. THIS
THUNDERSTORM CELL WILL MOVE NORTHEAST AT 20 MPH AND WILL AFFECT
AREAS BETWEEN LAKE JESSUP AND LAKE HARNEY...INCLUDING GENEVA.
ALONG THIS TRACK...BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWNS ARE EXPECTED.
 
IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF A TORNADO...ABANDON CARS AND MOBILE
HOMES FOR A REINFORCED BUILDING OR GET INTO A DITCH OR CULVERT.
THE SAFEST PLACE IS AN INTERIOR ROOM SUCH AS A CLOSET ON THE LOWEST
FLOOR OF A STRONG BUILDING. AVOID WINDOWS.

SPRATT

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Oct 31, 3:34 PM EST	Tornado Warning	MLB	Osceola	41 min
Oct 31, 4:08 PM EST	Tornado Warning	MLB	Osceola	57 min
Oct 31, 5:14 PM EST	Tornado Warning	MLB	Brevard	61 min
Oct 31, 5:15 PM EST	Tornado Warning	MLB	Brevard	55 min
Oct 31, 5:21 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MLB	Orange, Osceola	64 min
Oct 31, 5:21 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MLB	Seminole	64 min
Oct 31, 5:25 PM EST	Tornado Warning	MLB	Seminole	60 min
Oct 31, 5:46 PM EST	Tornado Warning	MLB	Volusia	64 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.