F2 tornado, Haines City, Florida, December 27, 1997

1. F040 to 72 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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

F2

Date

December 27, 1997

Touchdown

4:08 AM EST (09:08 UTC)

Path length

5.8 miles (9.3 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

18

Property damage

$6.0 million

County

Polk County

Touchdown point

28.070, -81.670

Lift-off point

28.130, -81.600

Record number

630

A strong F2 tornado touched down in the Lake Region mobile home park along U.S. Highway 27 and County Road 544 in Polk county. Several mobile homes sustained major to severe damage. Residents of Haines City who heard the tornado described that the sound resembled a high-pitched whine.The F2 tornado moved northeast and travelled across U.S. Highway 27 and caused significant wall and roof damage to several well built wood, mixed brick and mobile homes over mainly south and east Haines City from County Road 544 northeast to County Road 580. The Boone Middle School over eastern Haines City had heavy damage to a main building while eleven portable classrooms were destroyed or heavily damaged.Numerous trees were uprooted or snapped half way up from the base. Several orange trees were sheared near the base along County Road 544. Several power poles were snapped and power lines downed along the path of the F2 tornado.Total damage was estimated at six million dollars. Seventy-five homes were destroyed, another 75-100 suffered major damage while another 75-100 received minor damage. Most of the homes destroyed were mobile or pre-fabricated homes. Also, at least ten vehicles were damaged or destroyed by the tornado.Nearly 2,000 electrical customers were without power from power poles and lines blown down by the tornadic wind.Most injuries that occurred during the tornado touchdown resulted from wind blown debris.

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

38 minutes of warning. NWS TBW issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:30 UTC, 38 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:15 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:20 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

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

2 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.