Late morning thunderstorms along the Florida west coast produced numerous lightning strikes across Pinellas county. One of which struck a power pole in Seminole.
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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.
Late morning thunderstorms along the Florida west coast produced numerous lightning strikes across Pinellas county. One of which struck a power pole in Seminole.
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 Jul 30, 8:18 AM EST, 2 hours 12 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Tampa Bay Ruskin FL 918 AM EDT SAT JUL 30 2016 .UPDATE...Local observations and satellite have been showing mostly clear to partly cloudy conditions and light winds this morning. The radar over land has been quiet, but showers and storms have been firing up over the gulf coast waters all morning. This trend is expected to continue through late morning/early afternoon when the west coast sea breeze begins to develop. Once the sea breeze sets up, cloud coverage will increase and storms will develop over the coastal counties and push inland through the afternoon and evening hours. The highest concentration of storm activity can be expected from the I-4 corridor south. As far as temperatures, we started off very muggy with most places coming in near 80 degrees already with RH values in the 90 percent or higher range. As we've seen the past several days, the daytime high will be a few degrees above normal with low to mid 90's expected. The forecast is on track for now so no changes are needed at this time. && .AVIATION...No real changes since the last update. Light winds will continue through the morning, then turning to the SW/W through the late morning and afternoon with scattered storms developing and continuing through around 00z. Winds again become light and variable overnight. VFR will generally prevail, with MVFR to IFR conditions in any storms that move over a terminal. && .MARINE...High pressure continues to ridge over the central part of the Florida peninsula which will produce variable winds in the 5-8 knot range. Thunderstorms have been firing up over the coastal waters all morning. These late night/early morning storms can be expected over the coming days, with decreasing coverage during the day as storms move over land. Winds and seas are expected to remain below cautionary level for the next 5 days. && .Preliminary Point Temps/PoPs... TPA 92 78 92 77 / 40 20 30 30 FMY 93 76 91 76 / 40 40 60 20 GIF 94 75 93 75 / 40 30 40 20 SRQ 92 77 91 76 / 30 10 30 30 BKV 93 74 93 73 / 40 20 30 30 SPG 91 79 91 79 / 30 10 20 30 && .TBW Watches/Warnings/Advisories... FL...None. Gulf waters...None. && UPDATE/AVIATION/MARINE/FIRE WEATHER...74/Wynn UPPER AIR...18/Fleming DECISION SUPPORT...14/Mroczka
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY RUSKIN FL 504 AM EDT SAT JUL 30 2016 FLZ043-050-052-056-057-061-139-142-148-149-151-155-160-162-165- 239-242-248-249-251-255-260-262-265-GMZ830-836-850-853-856-870- 873-876-310915- SUMTER-PINELLAS-POLK-HARDEE-HIGHLANDS-DESOTO-COASTAL LEVY- COASTAL CITRUS-COASTAL HERNANDO-COASTAL PASCO- COASTAL HILLSBOROUGH-COASTAL MANATEE-COASTAL SARASOTA- COASTAL CHARLOTTE-COASTAL LEE-INLAND LEVY-INLAND CITRUS- INLAND HERNANDO-INLAND PASCO-INLAND HILLSBOROUGH-INLAND MANATEE- INLAND SARASOTA-INLAND CHARLOTTE-INLAND LEE-TAMPA BAY WATERS- CHARLOTTE HARBOR AND PINE ISLAND SOUND- COASTAL WATERS FROM TARPON SPRINGS TO SUWANNEE RIVER FL OUT 20 NM- COASTAL WATERS FROM ENGLEWOOD TO TARPON SPRINGS FL OUT 20 NM- COASTAL WATERS FROM BONITA BEACH TO ENGLEWOOD FL OUT 20 NM- WATERS FROM TARPON SPRINGS TO SUWANNEE RIVER FL OUT 20 TO 60 NM- WATERS FROM ENGLEWOOD TO TARPON SPRINGS FL OUT 20 TO 60 NM- WATERS FROM BONITA BEACH TO ENGLEWOOD FL OUT 20 TO 60 NM- 504 AM EDT SAT JUL 30 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT. ...THUNDERSTORM IMPACT... THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THUNDERSTORMS THAT DEVELOP WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING STRONG GUSTY WINDS...LOCALLY HEAVY RAINS...AND FREQUENT DEADLY LIGHTNING STRIKES. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. ...THUNDERSTORM IMPACT... THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED EACH AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING STRONG GUSTY WINDS...LOCALLY HEAVY RAINS...AND FREQUENT DEADLY LIGHTNING STRIKES. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY. CARLISLE
The Tampa radar (KTBW), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 15:27 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
The city of Seminole Fire Rescue reported a power pole being struck by lightning along U.S. Hwy 19. This caused power lines to come down in the road way closing the intersection temporarily.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Florida in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyWarnings in Florida, July 2016
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: 640586.