Alert archive / Florida / Tornado Warnings in 1998
Tornado Warning 5, NWS Tampa Bay, FL
NWS Tampa Bay, FL issued this tornado warning at Jan 23, 1998, 9:23 AM EST for DeSoto County, Hardee County, Florida. It was in force for 47 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
- Jan 23, 1998, 9:23 AM EST (14:23 UTC)
- Expired
- Jan 23, 1998, 10:10 AM EST
- In force
- 47 min
- Issued by
- NWS Tampa Bay, FL
- Area
- Whole counties
Counties DeSoto County, FL, Hardee County, FL
The radar
The Tampa radar (KTBW), 71 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 14:24 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 23, 9:15 AM EST | Tornado Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Cape Canaveral, FL (KXMR), launched 12:00Z, 2.4 hours before the alert went out and 180 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
- 1021 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -2 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 621 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 85 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 138 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 3.1
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
000 TTAA00 KTBW 231423 RRA TORTBW FLC027-049-231510- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL 923 AM EST FRI JAN 23 1998 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED A...TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 1010 AM EST FOR ...HARDEE COUNTY...DESOTO COUNTY AT 920 AM EST... NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR IN RUSKIN INDICATED 3 TORNADOES...ONE WAS LOCATED 7 MILES EAST OF WAUCHULA ALONG STATE ROAD 66...ANOTHER WAS LOCATED NEAR THE HARDEE DESOTO LINE ABOUT 8 MILES NORTHEAST OF ARCADIA EAST OF US 17. ANOTHER TORNADO WAS LOCATED ON THE SARASOTA/DESOTO COUNTY LINE...6 MILES WEST OF FORT OGDEN. ALL OF THESE STORMS WERE MOVING TO THE NORTHEAST AT 30 MPH. THESE ARE DANGEROUS STORMS! ACT QUICKLY. IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF THESE TORNADOES GO TO A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR. AVOID WINDOWS AND DOORS. ABANDON CARS AND MOBILE HOMES FOR A STURDY BUILDING OR GET INTO A DITCH OR CULVERT.
The office that day
Everything else NWS Tampa Bay, FL issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 23, 8:24 AM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TBW | Pinellas | |
| Jan 23, 8:25 AM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Charlotte, DeSoto, Sarasota | 60 min |
| Jan 23, 8:46 AM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Hillsborough, Pinellas | 49 min |
| Jan 23, 8:50 AM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Hardee | 45 min |
| Jan 23, 9:28 AM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Hillsborough, Pasco | 47 min |
| Jan 23, 9:38 AM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Highlands | 47 min |
| Jan 23, 9:49 AM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Polk | 46 min |
| Jan 23, 10:33 AM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Hardee, Highlands | 47 min |
| Jan 23, 10:42 AM EST | Tornado Warning | TBW | Polk | 48 min |
| Jan 23, 11:51 AM EST | Tornado 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.