Wildfire, Broward
- When
- April 17, 8:00 AM EST to April 24, 10:00 PM EST
- Where
- Broward County, 20 mi W of Tamarac
- Reported by
- NEWSPAPER
- Coordinates
- 26.152, -80.456 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Wildfire in Florida, April 17 to 24, 1999
S. 27 on the east, the Collier County line on the west, the Palm Beach County line on the north and Interstate 75 on the south.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. 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 MFL wrote it up.
An arson-set wildfire burned about 200,000 acres of everglades swampland in an area bounded by U.S. 27 on the east, the Collier County line on the west, the Palm Beach County line on the north and Interstate 75 on the south. I-75 was closed for more than two days.Near the beginning of the fire, in the late afternoon of April 17, heavy smoke blew into the Broward and Miami-Dade metro areas as a gust front with winds of 40 mph swept in from the west. Visibility was reduced to 1/4 mile for about an hour or two across the Miami metro area and Miami International Airport was closed. Firefighters from as far away as Arizona participated in suppressing the week-long fire which drew enormous media attention . On April 18, the fire briefly threatened high tension wires, but power was not interrupted. After April 18, east winds blew the smoke away from southeast Florida metro areas, but at times, smoke drifted over Naples and the lower Keys.
The radar
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
Event by event
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Wildfire
- A fire burning in wildland vegetation, with its acreage and damage where known.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
More
Every storm in Florida in 1999Every state in 1999This day in weather historyWarnings in Florida, April 1999
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: 5689638.