Alert archive / Florida / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 34, NWS Melbourne, FL

October 31, 1997Brevard County, Florida

NWS Melbourne, FL issued this tornado warning at Oct 31, 1997, 5:15 PM EST for Brevard County, Florida. It was in force for 55 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, 5:15 PM EST (22:15 UTC)
Expired: Oct 31, 1997, 6:10 PM EST
In force: 55 min
Issued by: NWS Melbourne, FL
Area: Whole counties

County Brevard County, FL

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 21 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:16 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, 10.3 hours before the alert went out and 27 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.

625 
WFUS01 KMLB 312215 RRA
TORMLB
FLC009-312310-

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

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MELBOURNE FL HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 610 PM EST
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA

   ...BREVARD COUNTY
 
AT 505 PM...DOPPLER WEATHER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADIC SIGNATURE 15
MILES WEST-SOUTHWEST OF COCOA. THE PARENT THUNDERSTORM CELL WILL
MOVE NORTHEAST AT 25 MPH AND AFFECT AREAS BETWEEN COCOA AND
SHARPES...THEN CONTINUE ACROSS THE INTRACOASTAL WATERS AND ACROSS
CAPE CANAVERAL NEAR PORT CANAVERAL. ALONG THIS TRACK...BRIEF TORNADO
TOUCHDOWNS ARE EXPECTED.

A SECOND TORNADO WAS INDICATED IN EXTREME NORTHERN BREVARD COUNTY.
THE CITY OF SCOTTSMOOR IS IN THE PATH OF THIS STORM.

THIS STORM HAS HAD A HISTORY OF PRODUCING TORNADO DAMAGE. SEEK
SHELTER IMMEDIATELY.

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, 4:47 PM EST	Tornado Warning	MLB	Seminole	43 min
Oct 31, 5:14 PM EST	Tornado Warning	MLB	Brevard	61 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.