Alert archive / Florida / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997
Severe Thunderstorm Warning 170, NWS Tampa Bay, FL
NWS Tampa Bay, FL issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Oct 31, 1997, 5:31 PM EST for Polk County, Florida. It was in force for 49 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, 5:31 PM EST (22:31 UTC)
- Expired
- Oct 31, 1997, 6:20 PM EST
- In force
- 49 min
- Issued by
- NWS Tampa Bay, FL
- Area
- Whole counties
County Polk County, FL
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
Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), launched 12:00Z, 10.5 hours before the alert went out and 74 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
- 1009 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -17 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 577 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 17 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 146 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 197 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 3.0
The text
The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before this severe thunderstorm warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Tampa Bay, FL wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at Oct 31, 2:13 PM EST, 3 hours 18 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Oct 31, 2:13 PM EST, 3 hours 18 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY-RUSKIN, FL 210 PM EST FRI OCT 31 1997 AS EXPECTED...A WILD DAY DEVELOPING WX WISE...BUT SITU UNFOLDING A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY THAN ORIG EXPECTED. SHWS/TSTMS HAVE BEEN FOCUSED ALNG THE WARM FRNTL BNDRY...FM JUST S OF TPA...THEN WNW INTO CENT GLF MEX. AS WARM FRNT MOVES N...SO WILL THE SHWS/TSTMS. PERSISTENT SUPERCELL DEVELOPED ALNG WRM FRNT OFF SRQ CST...THEN MOVED NE INTO SARASOTA AND MANATEE CO PRODUCING TOR AND SOME DAMAGE. AFT COORD WITH SPC...TOR WATCH ISSUED FOR MOST OF FA EXCEPT LEVY AND CITRUS. TONIGHT...MODELS MOVE UPR VORT NE ACROSS N GLF AND ACROSS THE FA LATE TONIGHT EARLY SAT MRNG WITH BEST UVV OVR FA BEFORE MIDNIGHT. ALTHO SFC LOW OVR N GLF SEEMS TO BE DEVELOPING SLOWLY...A WELL DEFINED NE/SW LINE OF SHWS/TSTMS HAS DEVELOPED ALNG WARM FRNT BNDRY INTO CENT GLF. EXPECT THIS LINE TO GRAD KINK INTO S-SHAPE CONFIGURATION AS SFC LOW OVR NE GLF STRENGTHENS. EXPECT BEST COVERAGE OF RAINFALL OVR N 1/3 OF FA TONIGHT N OF WARM FRNT. SQUALLINE/TROF FEATURE MAY STILL DEVELOP S OF SURFACE LOW THIS EVENG...MOVING INTO WCENT/SW FL BY 7-9 PM. UPR DYNAMIC STILL PRETTY IMPRESSIVE WITH COUPLED JETS...BUT SFC CONVERGENCE NOT PROGD TO BE VERY STRNG. THUS...NOT VERY CONFIDENT ON POSSIBILITY OF SVR WX THIS EVENG. SAT...UPR VORTICITY MOVES NE OUT OF FA...BUT UPR TROF STILL REMAINS OVR CENT GLF. SFC COLD FRNT MOVING INTO NW PANHANLDE LATER IN THE DAY. FLOW REMAINS SW...BUT STRENTHENS TO 15 TO 20 MPH AHEAD OF FRNT. CUD BE SOME MINOR CSTL FLOODING IF WINDS VERIFY AT SUSTAINED SSW ARND 20 MPH. ANOTHER CHC FOR SHWS/TSTMS WITH FRNT SAT NIGHT...BUT NOT LIKELY SVR THREAT AS UPR DYNAMICS REMAINS WELL NORTH. MINS STILL EXPECTED TO BE WARM SAT NIGHT AS FRNT NOT YET PUSHED THROUGH. SUN...SFC COLD FRNT MOVING FM NW TO SE. AFT A WARM START...TEMPS EXPECTED TO FALL AS COOL AIR FILTERS S. SKIES LIKELY CONTINUE VARIABLY CLDY...ESPEC ALNG CSTL SECTIONS WITH WNW WINDS BLOWING FRbM GLF. BKV 67/81 68/73 +122 TPA 68/82 69/74 8222 FMY 71/86 72/80 4222 MORALES
The office that day
Everything else NWS Tampa Bay, FL issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 31, 11:36 AM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Manatee, Sarasota | 29 min |
| Oct 31, 12:14 PM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW | Manatee, Sarasota | 51 min |
| Oct 31, 12:48 PM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Manatee | 47 min |
| Oct 31, 1:56 PM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Hillsborough | 29 min |
| Oct 31, 2:09 PM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Polk | 46 min |
| Oct 31, 2:50 PM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Polk | 45 min |
| Oct 31, 3:29 PM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW | Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas | 61 min |
| Oct 31, 3:44 PM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW | Polk | 31 min |
| Oct 31, 4:30 PM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW | Hillsborough | 45 min |
| Oct 31, 4:40 PM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW | Pinellas | 50 min |
Nearby
Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Florida, 1997Every severe thunderstorm warning 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.