Alert archive / Florida / Tornado Watches in 1997
Tornado Watch 278
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 12, 1997, 12:00 PM EDT for 10 counties in Florida. It was in force for 5 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- May 12, 1997, 12:00 PM EDT (16:00 UTC)
- Expired
- May 12, 1997, 5:00 PM EDT
- In force
- 5 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
Counties Broward County, FL, Charlotte County, FL, Collier County, FL, Glades County, FL, Hendry County, FL, Lee County, FL, Martin County, FL, Miami-Dade County, FL, Monroe County, FL, Palm Beach County, FL
The radar
The Miami radar (KAMX), 79 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 15:58 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.
Warnings issued inside it
4 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 12, 12:10 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | MFL | Collier, Hendry | 60 min |
| May 12, 1:55 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | MFL | Miami-Dade | 65 min |
| May 12, 2:15 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | MFL | Broward | 60 min |
| May 12, 3:20 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MFL | Broward | 55 min |
The nearest sounding before it
Miami, FL (KMFL), launched 12:00Z, 4.0 hours before the alert went out and 69 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 913 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -3 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 733 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 73 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 130 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.3
- Supercell composite
- 2.2
The text
The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 12, 3:45 PM EDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Glades and 15 more | 5 hr |
Nearby
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.