A cold front moved southeast into the Nature Coast and West-Central Florida during the late afternoon and early evening of March 24th. A line of thunderstorms developed ahead of the front and produced damaging wind gusts over Levy County.
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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 episode as NWS TBW wrote it up.
A cold front moved southeast into the Nature Coast and West-Central Florida during the late afternoon and early evening of March 24th. A line of thunderstorms developed ahead of the front and produced damaging wind gusts over Levy County.
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 Mar 24, 12:25 PM EST, 5 hours 6 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY RUSKIN FL 125 PM EDT SAT MAR 24 2012 .SHORT TERM (TONIGHT-MONDAY)... LARGE U/L CUT-OFF LOW WILL FINALLY MOVE OFF THE MID ATLANTIC COAST ON SUNDAY AND BE PICKED UP BY A NORTHERN STREAM SHORT WAVE ON MONDAY. ASSOCIATED COLD FRONT CURRENTLY OVER THE PANHANDLE OF FLORIDA WILL MOVE ACROSS THE FLORIDA PENINSULA TONIGHT AND EARLY SUNDAY. BAND OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL PUSH SOUTHEAST AHEAD OF THE COLD FRONT AND SPREAD OVER MUCH OF THE FORECAST AREA TONIGHT. A FEW STORMS MAY BE STRONG WITH LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN OVER THE NATURE COAST THIS EVENING. BAND OF PRECIPITATION WILL GRADUALLY WEAKEN OVERNIGHT AS IT MOVES SOUTHEAST ACROSS THE AREA. SURFACE HIGH PRESSURE WILL BUILD OVER WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA BEHIND THE FRONT SUNDAY AND MONDAY WITH DRIER AIR ADVECTING OVER THE AREA. TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN A FEW DEGREES ABOVE CLIMATIC NORMALS. .LONG TERM (MONDAY NIGHT - FRIDAY)...MODELS HAVE CHANGED LITTLE SINCE YESTERDAY. HIGH PRESSURE OVER THE MID-ATLANTIC COAST TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT WILL BE KICKED OUT INTO THE ATLANTIC ON WEDNESDAY AS A FAST MOVING STORM SYSTEM RACES EASTWARD ACROSS THE U.S./CANADIAN BORDER. THE LOW-LEVEL RIDGE AXIS WILL SHIFT SOUTHWARD INTO CENTRAL FLORIDA BY THURSDAY AND REMAIN THERE ON FRIDAY. THIS IS USUALLY A DRY WEATHER PATTERN DURING LATE MARCH...BUT A BRIEF SURGE OF MOISTURE COMING IN FROM THE EAST COULD RESULT IN A FEW WESTWARD MOVING SHOWERS ON TUESDAY. WILL JUST USE SILENT 10 PERCENT RAIN CHANCES FOR NOW BUT MAY NEED TO ADD SOME MENTION OF SHOWERS IN FUTURE FORECASTS. THE ATMOSPHERE DRIES OUT AGAIN SOME FOR WEDNESDAY AND REMAINS DRY THROUGH FRIDAY. TEMPERATURES WILL RUN 3 TO 5 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL. && .AVIATION... VFR CONDITIONS ARE GENERALLY EXPECTED AT THE TERMINALS THROUGH THE REMAINDER OF THE AFTERNOON AND EVENING. CAN/T RULE OUT AN ISOLATED SHOWER/THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPING AT KLAL THIS AFTERNOON AS THE GULF SEA BREEZE PUSHES INLAND...SO WILL KEEP A MENTION OF CB IN THE TAF HERE. LATER TONIGHT BOUNDARY LAYER MOISTURE WILL INCREASE AS A COLD FRONT PUSHES SOUTHWARD INTO NORTHERN/CENTRAL FLORIDA. AS THIS OCCURS...THERE WILL BE A CHANCE OF SHOWER/THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE CENTRAL AND NORTHERN TAF SITES AFTER 07Z SUNDAY...WHILE ANY SHOWER/THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT SHOULD HOLD OFF AT THE SOUTHERN TAF SITES UNTIL 10-12Z SUNDAY. SHOWER/THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY WILL END FROM NORTH TO SOUTH SUNDAY MORNING AND EARLY SUNDAY AFTERNOON. THE TIMING DETAILS AND PROBABILITY OF OCCURRENCE FOR ANY SHOWER/THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY REMAINS TOO UNCERTAIN TO INCLUDE ANYTHING MORE THAN CB IN THE TAFS AT THIS TIME. && .MARINE... WINDS AND SEAS WILL INCREASE TONIGHT AS A COLD FRONT MOVES ACROSS THE WATERS...HOWEVER WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN 15 KNOTS OR LESS WITH SEAS 4 FEET OR LESS. WINDS AND SEAS WILL GRADUALLY SUBSIDE SUNDAY NIGHT AND MONDAY. && .FIRE WEATHER... MINIMUM RELATIVE HUMIDITY LEVELS WILL DROP TO NEAR 35 PERCENT OVER THE INTERIOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY AFTERNOONS. RED FLAG CONDITIONS ARE NOT EXPECTED AS WINDS SHOULD REMAIN LESS THAN 15 MPH EACH DAY. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... TPA 69 80 62 81 / 50 10 0 0 FMY 67 84 63 85 / 30 30 0 0 GIF 64 84 59 83 / 50 20 0 0 SRQ 66 81 61 81 / 50 20 0 0 BKV 62 81 53 83 / 50 10 0 0 SPG 70 79 66 79 / 50 10 0 0 && .TBW WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... FL...NONE. GULF WATERS...NONE. && SHORT TERM/MARINE/FIRE WEATHER...13/OGLESBY LONG TERM/AVIATION...21/JELSEMA
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY RUSKIN FL 538 AM EDT SAT MAR 24 2012 FLZ039-042-043-048>052-055>057-060>062-065-242145- LEVY-CITRUS-SUMTER-HERNANDO-PASCO-PINELLAS-HILLSBOROUGH-POLK- MANATEE-HARDEE-HIGHLANDS-SARASOTA-DE SOTO-CHARLOTTE-LEE- 538 AM EDT SAT MAR 24 2012 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT. ...THUNDERSTORM IMPACT... THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TODAY WITH THE GREATEST CHANCE NORTH OF TAMPA BAY. THE STORMS WILL CREATE GUSTY WINDS... BRIEF DOWNPOURS AND FREQUENT LIGHTNING. ...WIND AND SEA IMPACT... WINDS AND SEAS WILL INCREASE TODAY AS A COLD FRONT PUSHES THROUGH THE GULF WATERS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. ...THUNDERSTORM IMPACT... THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED SUNDAY PRIMARILY SOUTH OF TAMPA BAY WITH GUSTY WINDS...BRIEF DOWNPOURS AND DEADLY LIGHTNING. ...WIND AND SEA IMPACT... THE WINDS AND SEAS WILL CONTINUE SUNDAY AS A COLD FRONT PUSHES THROUGH THE GULF WATERS. CONDITIONS MAY APPROACH ADVISORY CRITERIA IN THE NORTHERN OFFSHORE WATERS ON SUNDAY. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY. PAXTON
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Several oak trees and power lines were blown down near U.S. 19 and CR 320.
Several trees down and a 99-year old house was moved a quarter inch off its foundation just north of the intersection of NW 130th Street and NW 20th Avenue.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Florida in 2012Every state in 2012This day in weather historyWarnings in Florida, March 2012
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: 369094, 369095.