F0 tornado, Tampa, Florida, April 28, 1997

1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. F3158 to 206 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. F5261 to 318 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

F0

Date

April 28, 1997

Touchdown

11:55 AM EDT (15:55 UTC)

Path length

2.7 miles (4.3 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$500,000

County

Hillsborough County

Touchdown point

27.980, -82.470

Lift-off point

27.980, -82.470

Record number

419

A tornado touched down on 10th Street and Martin Luther King Blvd and downed several trees and power lines. The tornado continued northeast across a residential area where it caused minor roof and garage damage and downed a few trees and power lines. A small warehouse incurred roof damage and a gazebo was picked up and destroyed by the tornadic wind near Giddens Street and 15th Avenue. A woman working in the damaged warehouse received neck and back injuries from the wind blown roof debris.The tornado crossed the intersection of Hillsborough Avenue and 17th Street where it blew down the sign of a Checker Hamburgers fast-food restaurant, damaged several dozen vehicles of an auto dealership and downed a large flag pole.The next touchdown occurred on 30th Street and Crawford where two ten inch diameter pine trees were snapped off twenty feet above ground level. The final touchdown occurred at a water treatment plant along the Hillsborough River where minor damage was reported.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Tampa International Airport (TPA), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1997 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.