Weather, Storms & Hurricane Blog

(Updated at bottom of post from Survey team 1. 1:33pmET) The day after the devastating central Florida tornadoes in Sumter, Lake, Seminole, and Volusia counties, in the cities of Lady Lake, The Villages, any many other locations to the east. The National Weather Service in Melbourne Florida, will be sending out two survey teams early this morning, to review the damage paths in Lake and Volusia counties. One team will go to each county and spend the whole day surveying the severe damage produced by the one or several tornadoes. The results of the surveys will be posted here later today or when they release a public copy. On Friday, The National Weather Service in Tampa conducted a tornado damage survey in Sumter, County Florida and found that E-F3 damage was produced with winds in the 140-150 mph range, and was over a 5 mile track. Later today we should know how Lake, Seminole, and Volusia counties tornadic winds strength likely was. Stay tuned to this blog for survey updates.

Here is some archive radar data loops of the tornadic supercell that killed 20 and did severe damage across central Florida on February 2, 2007. These loops were published on Friday evening by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Melbourne, Florida. The radar loop data shows how the cyclic tornadic supercell across the central Florida area during the overnight hours of February 2, 2007, moving nearly 50 mph to the east-northeast. The first loop is between the hours 11:00 pm through 7:00 am ET and is 11mb file. The second loop is between the hours of 2:00 am - 6:00 am ET and is a much smaller file size of 5mb. Both loops are a animation gif file.

So, monitoring the NWS wire for survey reports later today and will publish them here once they are made public. At least it’s a nice cool day in the tornado damage area’s for search in rescue, NWS survey teams, and the start of the clean up process.

(8:58am et -Weather update in the tornado affected area’s) Currently there are showers and thunderstorms moving through the tornado affected area’s with some lightning, small hail and gusty winds that can blow around debris already in place from the tornadoes.

Wishing everyone in the affected area’s the best and safe recovery days ahead.

Survey Team 1 afternoon update from the damage zones 1:33 PM ET:

 PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL
125 PM EST SAT FEB 3 2007

…THE LATEST FIELD REPORT FROM THE LAKE COUNTY SURVEY TEAM…

…WINDS ESTIMATED AS HIGH AS 165 MPH IN VICINITY OF PAISLEY IN LAKE
COUNTY FLORIDA FROM FRIDAY MORNINGS DEADLY TORNADO…

SO FAR…A PRELIMINARY STORM SURVEY HAS BEEN CONDUCTED IN NORTHEAST
LAKE COUNTY BY A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SURVEY TEAM FROM THE
MELBOURNE FORECAST OFFICE. THE TEAM HAS SURVEYED A SEGMENT OF THE
TORNADO DAMAGE PATH FROM PAISLEY…TO NEAR LAKE MACK…EAST TO THE
LAKE/VOLUSIA COUNTY LINE NEAR FOREST DRIVE AND STATE ROAD 44.
NOTE…THIS IS ONLY A SMALL SECTION OF THE OVERALL DAMAGE TRACK
STRETCHING ACROSS NORTH LAKE AND CENTRAL VOLUSIA COUNTIES.

INITIAL FIELD REPORTS ARE THAT A HIGH END EF-3 TORNADO STRUCK THIS
AREA CAUSING COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF MOBILE HOMES…AND CAUSING
LARGE TREES TO BECOME DEBARKED WITH ONLY THE STUBS OF THE LARGEST
BRANCHES REMAINING. THE ESTIMATED TORNADO WINDS NEAR PAISLEY AND
LAKE MACK WERE 160 TO 165 MPH WHICH RESULTED IN 11 FATALITIES. THE
ESTIMATED TORNADO WINDS EASTWARD NEAR THE COUNTY LINE WERE 150 TO
154 MPH WHICH RESULTED IN 3 FATALITIES.   

THE EF-3 TORNADO APPROACHED THE PAISLEY AREA FROM THE WEST SOUTHWEST
STRIKING LAKE MACK AT 348 AM AND THEN STRIKING THE AREA NEAR STATE
ROAD 44 AT 350 AM.  A TOTAL OF 14 KNOWN FATALITIES OCCURRED DURING
THIS DEADLY TWO MINUTES. 

THE TORNADO AT PAISLEY WAS ESTIMATED TO BE ONE-QUARTER MILE
WIDE…NARROWING AS IT MOVED EAST AND APPROACHED THE COUNTY LINE.
THE DAMAGE ALONG THIS SEGMENT WAS CONTINUOUS. TEAMS HAVE YET TO
ASCERTAIN WHETHER THE DAMAGE PATH WAS CONTINUOUS FROM LADY LAKE TO
PAISLEY. THIS WILL BE ANSWERED ONCE THE LADY LAKE SITE IS COMPLETELY
SURVEYED ALONG WITH AN AERIAL ASSESSMENT OVER THE MORE RURAL
LOCATIONS BETWEEN THE MAIN DAMAGE SITES.

THIS STATEMENT WILL BE UPDATED AS SOON AS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
BECOMES AVAILABLE FROM THE LAKE COUNTY FIELD SURVEY TEAM.   

A WORD ABOUT THE NEW TORNADO SCALE…THE EF-SCALE WAS DEVELOPED TO
BETTER ASSESS WIND SPEEDS ASSOCIATED WITH A WIDE VARIETY OF
STRUCTURAL DAMAGE…FROM SINGLE-WIDE MOBILE HOMES TO INDUSTRIAL
BUILDINGS TO FRAMED ONE OR TWO FAMILY HOMES…AND MANY MORE.  THIS
SCALE IS CONSIDERED A DAMAGE SCALE…WHEREAS THE TRADITIONAL FUJITA
SCALE (F-SCALE) WAS MORE OF A WIND SPEED SCALE.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE NEW EF SCALE…PLEASE SEE THE FOLLOWING
WEBSITE:

HTTP://WWW.SPC.NOAA.GOV/FSCALE

$$

DWS/NWS MELBOURNE FL

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