Florida, 2004

Tornado in Florida, September 19, 2004

September 19, 2004 · 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

Open the live radar over this ground

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 forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Tampa Bay, FL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 19, 12:26 PM EST, 4 hours 3 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 19, 12:26 PM EST, 4 hours 3 minutes before
WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL
126 PM EDT SUN SEP 19 2004

.SHORT TERM (TONIGHT - TUE)...LATEST MODELS INSIST ON STRONG JET
DEVELOPING OVER FAR SOUTH FLORIDA FOR MONDAY INTO TUESDAY...PUTTING
CWA INTO FAVORABLE LEFT FRONT QUAD. THIS IS EXPECTED TO INTERACT WITH
SURFACE TROF MOVING SOUTHWESTWARD OVER THE FAR WESTERN ATLANTIC AND
INTO THE FLORIDA PENINSULA...FOR ENHANCED VERTICAL MOTION AND
RAINFALL. I HAVE RAISED POPS MONDAY AND TUESDAY DUE TO THIS
FAVORABLE INTERACTION. IN ADDITION...MUCH MORE CLOUD COVER SHOULD
HOLD MAX TEMPS DOWN A FEW DEGREES FROM TODAY...AND LOW LEVEL COLD
ADVECTION WILL HELP THE PROCESS OUT AS WELL.

WITH STRONG HIGH BUILDING TO THE NORTH...NORTHEASTERLY WINDS WILL
BE ON THE INCREASE...GIVING SOMEWHAT BREEZY CONDITIONS. LOW CLOUDS
SHOULD MOVE IN ON THE NORTHEASTERLY WINDS TONIGHT NORTH OF TAMPA...
AND WILL PROBABLY HAVE A HARD TIME BREAKING AT ALL ON MONDAY. MY
CURRENT FORECAST MAX TEMPS MAY EVEN TURN OUT TO BE TOO HIGH.

.LONG TERM (TUE NIGHT - SUN)...FOR THE TIME BEING WILL DAMPEN OUT THE
FEATURE OUT IN THE GULF THAT APPEARS TO BE THE REMNANTS OF IVAN BUT
WILL KEEP SCATTERED POPS IN FOR WED. OTHERWISE DEEP RIDGING OVER THE
MID ATLANTIC COAST WILL KEEP A DRIER NORTHEASTERLY FLOW ACROSS THE
CWFA WITH ISOLATED CONVECTION AFTER WED. WINDS REMAIN NE INTO THE
WEEKEND BUT WILL DECREASE AS THE RIDGING MOVES OFF THE EAST U.S.
COAST...ALLOWING THE GRADIENT TO SLACKEN AMD PROVIDE THE PROSPECTS
OF A NICE BOATING WEEKEND.

&&

.MARINE...AS MENTIONED ABOVE...WIND WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE
STARTING TONIGHT AND LASTING INTO TUESDAY. SCEC CONDITIONS ARE
EXPECTED TO DEVELOP BY MONDAY AND LAST INTO EARLY TUESDAY.

&&

.FIRE WEATHER...INCREASING WINDS WILL ALLOW FOR INCREASING
DISPERSIONS MONDAY AND TUESDAY...BUT MINIMUM RH VALUES WILL REMAIN
ABOVE ANY FLAG CRITERIA.

&&

.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
TPA 072 085 073 088 / 00 60 40 50
FMY 073 088 072 088 / 00 50 40 50
GIF 071 085 072 088 / 00 60 40 50
SRQ 073 086 075 088 / 00 60 40 50
BKV 068 083 071 088 / 10 50 40 40

&&

.TBW WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE.

&&

SHORT TERM...ALSHEIMER
LONG TERM...RKR
Hazardous weather outlook, Sep 19, 4:02 AM EST, 12 hours 27 minutes before
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL
502 AM EDT SUN SEP 19 2004

FLZ039-042-043-048>052-055>057-060>062-065-191300-
CHARLOTTE-CITRUS-DE SOTO-HARDEE-HERNANDO-HIGHLANDS-HILLSBOROUGH-LEE-
LEVY-MANATEE-PASCO-PINELLAS-POLK-SARASOTA-SUMTER-
502 AM EDT SUN SEP 19 2004

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST
FLORIDA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY:

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY:

STRONG HIGH PRESSURE BUILDING IN OVER THE EASTERN UNITED STATES WILL
SUPPORT BREEZY NORTHEAST WINDS OVER THE REGION THROUGH MUCH OF THE
WEEK...WITH WINDS OVER THE ADJACENT GULF WATERS POSSIBLY APPROACHING
SMALL CRAFT EXERCISE CAUTION CRITERIA BY TUESDAY. IN ADDITION TO THE
INCREASING WINDS...A WEAK TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE MOVING INTO THE
REGION LATE MONDAY INTO TUESDAY COMBINED WITH INCREASING LOW LEVEL
MOISTURE WILL RESULT IN SCATTERED SHOWERS AND A FEW THUNDERSTORMS
EACH DAY THROUGH THE PERIOD...WITH THE MAIN HAZARD BEING OCCASIONAL
LIGHTNING STRIKES.

.SPOTTER CALL TO ACTION STATEMENT...
SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED.

&&

FOR ADDITIONAL WEATHER INFORMATION...CHECK OUR WEB SITE AT
HTTP://WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/TBW (LOWER CASE)

JCM

In the hours before

Local storm report, Sep 19, 2:47 PM EST, 1 hour 42 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL
347 PM EDT SUN SEP 19 2004

..TIME...   ...EVENT...     ...CITY LOCATION...      ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....     ..COUNTY LOCATION...ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0333 PM     TORNADO          1 WSW CAPE CORAL        26.57N 82.00W
09/19/2004                   LEE                FL   EMERGENCY MNGR

            CAPE CORAL FIRE CHIEF REPORTED A BRIEF TORNADO WITH SOME
            DAMAGE TO LESS THAN 12 HOMES NEAR THE WATER.

0335 PM     WATER SPOUT      2 SW CAPE CORAL         26.55N 82.01W
09/19/2004                   LEE                FL   TRAINED SPOTTER

            BRIEFLY A TORNADO IN EXTREME SOUTHWEST CAPE CORAL WITH
            SOME DAMAGE TO LESS THAN 12 HOMES.

&&

NOAH

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:30 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Lee

When
September 19, 4:29 PM EST to 4:32 PM EST
Where
Lee County, 5 mi NNW of Captiva
Rating
F0
Path length
0.2 mi
Path width
30 yd
Reported by
TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates
26.583, -82.217

A waterspout over Pine Island Sound moved west across Pine Island then into the Gulf of Mexico.

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

More

Every storm in Florida in 2004Every state in 2004This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Florida, 2004Warnings in Florida, September 2004

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: 5422837.