Tornado, Polk
- When
- March 30, 3:35 PM EST
- Where
- Polk County, 12 mi N of Lakeland
- Rating
- F0
- Path length
- 2.5 mi
- Path width
- 5 yd
- Coordinates
- 28.200, -81.950
Tornado in Florida, March 30, 1996
S. Highway 98 and Rock Ridge Road.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- None recorded
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS TBW wrote it up.
A short-lived tornado touched down sporatically in a rural area of northern Polk county near the intersection of U.S. Highway 98 and Rock Ridge Road. The tornado was observed to touch down again near Moore Road before it moved east and dissipated.
The radar
The Tampa radar (KTBW), 71 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 20:35 UTC.
Event by event
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornado in Florida, March 30, 1996
- Hail in Florida, March 30, 1996
- Hail in Florida, March 30, 1996
- Hail in Florida, March 30, 1996
- Damaging Wind in Florida, March 30, 1996
- Hail in Florida, March 30, 1996
- Hail in Florida, March 30, 1996
- Damaging Wind in Florida, March 30, 1996
- Hail in Florida, March 30, 1996
- Hail in Arkansas, March 30, 1996
- Hail in Florida, March 30, 1996
- Hail in Florida, March 30, 1996
More
Every storm in Florida in 1996Every state in 1996This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Florida, 1996Warnings in Florida, March 1996
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5575243.