F1 tornado, Lakeland, Florida, May 21, 1999

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.

Rating

F1

Date

May 21, 1999

Touchdown

5:42 PM EDT (21:42 UTC)

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Polk County

Touchdown point

28.020, -81.970

Lift-off point

28.030, -81.970

Record number

403

A tornado initially touched down in the Heatherwood Village Mobile Home Park and caused minor to moderate damage to the roofs, carports, lanais, and awnings of over 30 mobile homes. The tornado continued to move north along Harden Boulevard and caused minor to moderate roof damage to a gas/convenience store at the intersection of W. Ariana Street and Sikes Boulevard while a strip shopping mall north of the intersection suffered minor to moderate roof damage from the F1 tornado.The tornado continued north along Central Avenue and uprooted or snapped dozens of Live Oak and pine trees and downed at least two dozen power lines on either side of the road. Two additional mobile home rooftops were removed by tornadic wind on Inman Drive while a shed and carport were destroyed at the intersection of Dorothy Street and Central Avenue.The tornado snapped a large tree which fell atop and caused significant structural damage to a home at the intersection of Lime Street and Veterans Avenue. The tornado lifted and dissipated north of Central Avenue and the CSX railroad tracks near the Amtrak station.The tornado caused major roof and wall damage to two businesses while three others suffered minor damage. The tornado caused major roof, wall and chimney damage to 14 single family homes with minor to moderate roof damage to an additional 84 single family homes. The tornado caused minor to moderate roof, carport, lanais and awning damage to 36 mobile homes.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 17:42 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 1999 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

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.