Tornado in Florida, March 1, 1998

Name: Tornado in Florida, March 1, 1998
Start: 1998-03-01T06:00
End: 1998-03-01T06:00
Location: Florida

March 1, 1998 · NWS TBW · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.

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

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $500,000
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.

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 10:58 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Sarasota

When: March 1, 6:00 AM EST
Where: Sarasota County, 2 mi ENE of Sarasota
Rating: F1
Path length: 0.4 mi
Path width: 20 yd
Property damage: $500,000
Coordinates: 27.350, -82.500

A tornado touched down at the Tuttle Elementary School at Brink Avenue north of County Road 780 (Fruitville Road) in Sarasota and severely damaged six classrooms, a portion of a portable dining room, downed a concrete wall and reduced a pavilion to a pile of rubble. Six additional classrooms incurred minor damage from the tornado before it lifted and dissipated. A few trees and large tree limbs were downed by the tornado before it lifted and dissipated.

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

Every storm in Florida in 1998 Every state in 1998 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Florida, 1998 Warnings in Florida, March 1998

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: 5649181.