Weather, Storms & Hurricane Blog

As of now, most of the damage preliminary surveys conducted by The National Weather Service in Melbourne Florida covering the central Florida tornadoes, are just about complete. Today they had two different survey teams head out and review all the of the damage paths in Lake, Seminole and Volusia counties, where the tornado did the most damage on February 2, 2007. They are reporting 3 different tornadoes in this event. It’s looking like most of the damage is being rated as a strong Enhanced-F-3 long-track tornadoes with winds in the 150 to 165 mph range over much of the tornadic track. There was some noted F1 damage near the coast in Volusia county and noted as likely a separate weaker tornado. All of the preliminary damage surveys for the central Florida tornado event can be found below. Feel free to link back to this post for the reports.

Another Florida winter El Nino tornado event. The last large deadly tornado event during a Florida El Nino winter was back in February 1998 where a large tornado outbreak took place during the overnight hours, killing double the amount of this past event. Goes to show that when the sub-tropical jet stream shifts south over the Gulf during El Nino winters, bad severe weather setups affect the central Florida area. More on this in a upcoming post covering Florida El Nino Winters.

Now on to the 2007 Central Florida Deadly Tornado event of February 2, 2007 damage surveys from the National Weather Service.

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL
615 PM EST SAT FEB 3 2007…THE LATEST FIELD REPORT FROM BOTH THE LAKE COUNTY AND VOLUSIA
COUNTY SURVEY TEAMS REGARDING YESTERDAYS KILLER TORNADO EVENT…

…DAMAGE SURVEYS NOW INDICATE THAT AT LEAST THREE TORNADOES ARERESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION… A PRELIMINARY STORM SURVEY CONTINUES IN BOTH LAKE AND VOLUSIA
COUNTIES WHERE EXPERT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SURVEY TEAMS ARE
ASSESSING THE DEVASTATION. THE LATEST REPORT FROM THE LAKE COUNTY
TEAM IS THAT THE TORNADO WHICH RIPPED THROUGH THE VILLAGES AND LADY
LAKE WAS HIGH END EF-3 WITH WINDS OF 155 TO 160 MPH. THE FIRST OF
THREE TORNADOES INITIALLY TOUCHED DOWN IN SUMTER COUNTY NEAR
WILDWOOD AND THE VILLAGES AND THEN CROSSED OVER INTO LAKE COUNTY TO
STRIKE LADY LAKE WHERE THE FIRST EVENT FATALITIES OCCURRED.
CURRENTLY…THERE ARE SIX KNOWN FATALITIES IN THE LADY LAKE AREA.

THE VILLAGES/LADY LAKE TORNADO…TORNADO NUMBER 1…HAS BEEN
CLASSIFIED AS AN EF-3 TORNADO WHICH CAUSED DAMAGE TO STRUCTURES
WHERE MOST WALLS COLLAPSED EXCEPT FOR THEIR INTERIOR ROOMS…AS WELL
AS LARGE TREES BECAME DEBARKED WITH ONLY THE STUBS OF THE LARGEST
BRANCHES REMAINING. MOBILE HOMES WERE COMPLETELY DESTROYED. THIS
TORNADO WAS ONE-QUARTER MILE WIDE DURING ITS MOST FIERCE MOMENTS.
THE TORNADO LIFTED EAST OF LADY LAKE WITH AN APPROXIMATE PATH LENGTH
OF ABOUT 15 MILES. THE TORNADO STRUCK LADY LAKE AT 320 AM.
AGAIN…SIX KNOWN FATALITIES ARE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS TORNADO. 

THE LAKE MACK/DELAND TORNADO…TORNADO NUMBER 2…WAS ALSO HIGH END
EF-3 WITH WINDS OF 160 TO 165 MPH. IT WAS ALSO ONE-QUARTER MILE
WIDE. IT RESULTED IN COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF MOBILE HOMES…AND
CAUSED LARGE TREES TO BECOME DEBARKED. THE ESTIMATED TORNADO WINDS
NEAR LAKE MACK PEAKED AT 165 MPH WHICH RESULTED IN 11
FATALITIES…AND 150 TO 155 MPH WINDS AT FOREST DRIVE AND STATE ROAD
44 WHICH RESULTED IN 3 MORE FATALITIES. A TOTAL OF 14 KNOWN
FATALITIES OCCURRED WITH THIS DEADLY TORNADO. THE TORNADO CONTINUED
ACROSS THE COUNTY LINE NEAR HONTOON ISLAND…CROSSING INTO VOLUSIA
COUNTY…AND STRIKING DELAND AS A HIGH END EF-2 TORNADO WITH WINDS
OF 130 TO 135 MPH AS REPORTED BY THE VOLUSIA COUNTY TEAM. IT WAS
ONE-EIGHTH MILE WIDE AND LIFTED EAST OF INTERSTATE 4 NEAR THE
VOLUSIA COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS. THE PATH LENGTH WAS APPROXIMATELY 22
MILES. THE TORNADO STRUCK LAKE MACK AT 348 AM AND DELAND AT 402 AM.

THE NEW SMYRNA BEACH/PONCE INLET TORNADO…TORNADO NUMBER THREE…
HAS BEEN INITIALLY RATED AS AN EF-1 TORNADO WITH WINDS OF 100 TO 105
MPH. THE TORNADO UPLIFTED ROOFS ON MANY STRUCTURES…CAUSING A
SIGNIFICANT LOSS OF ROOFING MATERIAL…THE COLLAPSE OF CHIMNEYS…
AND COLLAPSING GARAGE DOORS. ADDITIONAL DAMAGE OCCURRED TO PORCHES
AND CAR PORTS. THIS TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN JUST EAST OF INTERSTATE 95
NORTH OF HIGHWAY 44 IN NEW SMYRNA BEACH AND MOVED THROUGH PONCE
INLET. THE PATH LENGTH IS ABOUT 5 MILES. THE TORNADO STRUCK PONCE
INLET AT 427 AM.

THIS STATEMENT IS ONLY AN INITIAL REPORTING FROM THE SURVEY TEAMS.
IN THE COMING DAYS…CONSIDERABLE EFFORT WILL BE INVESTED TO ENSURE
THAT THIS HISTORICAL EVENT IS ACCURATELY DOCUMENTED.    

A WORD ABOUT THE NEW ENHANCED FUJITA (EF) 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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