Alert archive / Florida / Tornado Warnings in 1998
Tornado Warning 24, NWS Tampa Bay, FL
NWS Tampa Bay, FL issued this tornado warning at Feb 16, 1998, 1:12 PM EST for Hillsborough County, Florida. It was in force for 48 min. 4 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
- Feb 16, 1998, 1:12 PM EST (18:12 UTC)
- Expired
- Feb 16, 1998, 2:00 PM EST
- In force
- 48 min
- Issued by
- NWS Tampa Bay, FL
- Area
- Whole counties
County Hillsborough County, FL
What was reported inside it
| Time | Report | Where | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 16, 1:34 PM EST | Thunderstorm Wind 52 | Tampa, FL | Thunderstorm winds produced a 60 mph wind gust along Lukes Lake Fern Road, near the intersection of Hillsborough Avenue and Dale Mabry Boulevard. |
| Feb 16, 1:55 PM EST | Hail 0.75 | Ruskin, FL | |
| Feb 16, 1:55 PM EST | Hail 1 | Sun City, FL | Daisy shaped and clear one inch hailstones were reported in Sun City. |
| Feb 16, 1:59 PM EST | Hail 1 | Ruskin, FL | One inch hail was reported by a Skywarn Spotter near U.S. Highway 301 and Balm Road. |
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 watch it was issued in
The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.
| Issued | Product | Office | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 16, 1:00 PM EST | Tornado Watch | SPC | 5 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), launched 12:00Z, 6.2 hours before the alert went out and 23 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
- 368 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -9 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 517 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 47 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 456 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 609 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.0
- Supercell composite
- 5.1
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
431 WFUS1 KTBW 161814 RRA TORTBW FLC057-161900- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA RUSKIN FL ISSUED BY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL 112 PM EST MON FEB 16 1998 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MELBOURNE FL HAS ISSUED A TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 200 PM EST FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION... IN WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA ...NORTHWESTERN HILLSBOROUGH AT 110 PM WEATHER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO DEVELOPING OVER NORTHERN OLD TAMPA BAY. THIS STORM WILL MOVE NORTHEAST AT 35 MPH AND WILL TO NEAR CITRUS PARK AROUND 120 PM. 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 Tampa Bay, FL issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 15, 7:05 PM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW | Lee | 80 min |
| Feb 15, 7:18 PM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Lee | 37 min |
| Feb 16, 9:29 AM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Citrus | 31 min |
| Feb 16, 11:28 AM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Pinellas | 32 min |
| Feb 16, 1:18 PM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW | Manatee | 47 min |
| Feb 16, 1:47 PM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW | Hillsborough | 48 min |
| Feb 16, 2:25 PM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Polk | 50 min |
| Feb 16, 2:38 PM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW | Polk | 32 min |
| Feb 16, 3:11 PM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW | Polk | 49 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in Florida, 1998Every tornado warning in 1998Tornadoes in 1998
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.