Alert archive / Florida / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 37, NWS Tampa Bay, FL

October 27, 1997Pinellas County, Florida

NWS Tampa Bay, FL issued this tornado warning at Oct 27, 1997, 8:34 AM EST for Pinellas County, Florida. It was in force for 26 min. 3 reports came from inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named, with what was reported inside it.

The facts

Issued: Oct 27, 1997, 8:34 AM EST (13:34 UTC)
Expired: Oct 27, 1997, 9:00 AM EST
In force: 26 min
Issued by: NWS Tampa Bay, FL
Area: Whole counties

County Pinellas County, FL

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 40 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 13:16 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.

What was reported inside it

Time	Report	Where	Remark
Oct 27, 8:42 AM EST	Tornado F1	Indian Rocks Beach, FL	A tornado touched down near State Road 699 (Gulf Boulevard) and 6th Avenue, moved northeast and dissipated near the intersection of County Road 590 and Old Coachman Road. The tornado left thousands of electrical customers without power, knocked down numerous
Oct 27, 8:45 AM EST	Thunderstorm Wind 55	St Petersburg, FL
Oct 27, 8:48 AM EST	Tornado F0	Clearwater, FL	A tornado briefly touched down and uprooted a few trees, twisted a couple of stop signs and downed a couple of power lines on Caladesi Island State Park.

NCEI Storm Data entries that began inside the alert's area while it was in force. Before 2003 the local storm report archive is thin, so this is the record of what happened rather than what was phoned in.

The nearest sounding before it

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), launched 12:00Z, 1.6 hours before the alert went out and 40 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: 2501 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 494 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 54 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 142 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 158 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 2.3
Supercell composite: 8.7

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

574 
WFUS1 KTBW 271337 RRA
TORTBW
FLC103-FLZ504-271400-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL
834 AM EST MON OCT 27 1997

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED A...TORNADO WARNING
EFFECTIVE UNTIL 900 AM EST FOR

...PINELLAS COUNTY

...INCLUDING THE ADJACENT GULF WATERS

AT 832 AM EST... NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR IN RUSKIN
INDICATED A DEVELOPING TORNADO 5 MILES WEST OF INDIAN ROCKS BEACH. THE
MOVEMENT WAS TO THE EAST NORTHEAST AT 50 MPH.

A DOPPLER RADAR DETECTED TORNADO MEANS THAT THERE IS STRONG
ROTATION WITHIN A STORM. THE STORM MAY NOT BE PRODUCING A TORNADO AT
THE MOMENT...BUT WILL LIKELY DURING THE WARNING PERIOD. THE STORM MAY
ALSO INCLUDE HAIL AND DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WIND. THOSE IN THE PATH
OF THE STORM ARE ADVISED TO TAKE COVER IMMEDIATELY.

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Oct 26, 10:02 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TBW	Levy	88 min
Oct 27, 7:08 AM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TBW	Pasco, Pinellas	62 min
Oct 27, 8:24 AM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TBW	Pinellas	51 min
Oct 27, 8:46 AM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TBW	Hillsborough, Pasco	44 min
Oct 27, 8:46 AM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TBW	Manatee	44 min
Oct 27, 9:00 AM EST	Tornado Warning	TBW	Hillsborough	30 min
Oct 27, 9:15 AM EST	Tornado Warning	TBW	Polk	45 min
Oct 27, 10:01 AM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TBW	Polk	29 min
Oct 27, 10:27 AM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TBW	Hillsborough, Manatee	48 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; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.