Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 1998

F1 tornado, Sarasota, Florida, March 1, 1998

This F1 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Sarasota County on March 1, 1998, touching down at 6:00 AM EST and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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 mphthis tornado

    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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
March 1, 1998
Touchdown
6:00 AM EST (11:00 UTC)
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500,000
County
Sarasota County
Touchdown point
27.350, -82.500
Lift-off point
27.350, -82.500
Record number
342

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down at the Tuttle Elementary School at Brink Avenue north of County Road 780 (Fruitville Road) in Sarasota and severely damaged six classrooms, a portion of a portable dining room, downed a concrete wall and reduced a pavilion to a pile of rubble. Six additional classrooms incurred minor damage from the tornado before it lifted and dissipated. A few trees and large tree limbs were downed by the tornado before it lifted and dissipated.

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

The warnings

24 minutes of warning. NWS TBW issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:36 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:10 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:04 UTC11:05 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTBW
10:36 UTC11:10 UTCTornado WarningTBW
11:11 UTC11:55 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTBW

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 12:04 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 air that afternoon

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 Bay, FL (KTBW), 00:00Z

11.0 hours before the tornado, 41 km from the path. March 1, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 1998-03-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1852 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 516 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 1998-03-01The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 104 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1852 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1501 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
516 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
104 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
136 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
3.9
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 12:00Z

1.0 hours after it, 41 km from the path. March 1, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 1998-03-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 133 joules per kilogram, CIN -170, lifted condensation level 1085 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 1998-03-01The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 141 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
133 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-170 J/kg
Surface CAPE
156 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1085 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
141 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
121 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Sarasota-Bradenton (SRQ), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
11:10 UTC66.264.4140° 5 kt1008.5
11:50 UTC66.264.4140° 9 kt1008.5TS
12:20 UTC66.266.2150° 5 kt1009.1
12:55 UTC6866.2200° 8 kt1008.8

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

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:58 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 1, 1998

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 11:00 AM ESTF0Polk, FL0.130

What this means

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.

Sources

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