Kissimmee Tornado Outbreak - February 22 - 23, 1998

The Kissimmee Tornado Outbreak of February 22 - 23, 1998, was the deadliest tornado event in Florida history. Forty-two people were killed and 260 were injured; seven tornadoes were involved in the event. The previous record for the highest tornado death toll in Florida history was 17 on March 31, 1962.

The first tornado of the outbreak came at around 11:40 pm in Lake County, Florida. Three were killed in this tornado. The most notable tornado of the night was an F3 that hit in Kissimmee, where twenty five were killed. Another F3 hit in Seminole County, Florida, near Sanford and Volusia County, Florida, killing 13. The last tornado of the night hit in Brevard County, Florida.

The tornadoes were strong due to an abnormally strong jet stream with warm, humid air out ahead of the cold front. This is common in the El Niño phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) during the Florida dry season (November 1 - April 30) During EL Nino the jet stream is typically stronger and further south near or over Florida in the winter and spring. This greatly increases the odds that conditions will be favorable for strong tornado development. The controversy surrounding this outbreak resulted from attempts to try to correlate specific tornadoes with El Nino. There are a number of reasons why a tornado may or may not occur, or be reported, that have nothing to do with Pacific SSTs. A better approach is to focus on the development of atmospheric conditions that might produce tornadoes and severe weather. A novel approach to enhancing El Nino preparedness in Florida is to concentrate on "Storminess" or the increase in extratropical cyclones effecting Florida that might spawn severe weather in El Nino dry seasons. An experimental forecast of Florida storminess based on Pacific SST's has been developed. Studies that look at yearly tornado reports and Pacific SST's show no relationship between El Niño and United States tornado activity and a weak relationship for Florida.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• 1998
• February
• 22
• 23
• 022398
• tornado
• tornadoes
• florida
• orlando
• radar
• weather
• storm
• Kissimmee

[blown22]

@aldfjak

cont'd

The fact remains that the warnings were very timely and accurate. The NWS service assessment and the awards our office received for our actions that night attest to that. Deaths were not caused by people not taking warnings seriously, or too large of an area was warned for. It was that only 2-4% of people own NOAA weather radios and that was the only way to get timely warning information that night when most people had turned off their TV's and gone to bed for the night.

[blown22]

@aldfjak

cont'd Areas near Kenansville, Holopaw, and Yeehaw Junction were not mentioned specifically, but the towns that actually got struck (Campbell, Intercession, Kissimmee, etc. were. That was as good as we could do back then.

I know of which I speak because I was the radar/warning met on duty at the NWS in Melbourne that night. My name is on the actual TOR warning for Osceola County. Sure technology has improved since '98, but would that have really been lives?

[blown22]

Irrespective of your point, the fact remains that your claim about warnings being too late is false.

Moreover, calling out warnings for whole counties as being "nonsense" is simply grandstanding 10+ years after the fact. That was the state of the art for warnings in a pre "warn-by-polygon" era back in '98. But even though warnings back then were for whloe counties, the specific verbiage mentioned the threatened cities and areas.

[aldfjak]

@blown22 how the heck do you issue a tornado warning for Osceola county when the county take 2 hours to drive through? of course people aren't gonna take it serious. my point is that issuing a warning for an entire county is nonsense. since then they have improved warnings to include portions of counties, instead of the entire county

[LenaAndreia]

Deltona has dodged the bullet twice with these tornado events.

Midway was hit hard in 1998--I remember driving alongside the Sanford airport with my dad and all the houses across from the airport were smashed.

Then there was the one in 2007 that smashed through Deland--it crossed the highway by the fairgrounds.

Both nights, I remember thinking of how muggy it was... And both nights I stayed awake listening to our NOAA radio going crazy over the lightning. Scary stuff.

[1980Invasiontour]

That night in longwood i never heard lighting on top of lighting.....It went straight up 17-92. The f3 that hit sem county.

[blown22]

Obviously you don't know what you're talking about. Your assertion that the warnings were late is completely and utterly false. All 7 of the TOR's that night were preceded by warnings. A tornado warning was in effect for Osceola County 28 minutes before the Ponderosa RV park was struck. Read the NWS service assessment before you start spreading false information.

[ashleemia]

What a night...I will never forget. I lived 1/4 mile from the lil' champ that was leveled! 43 people died that night. It was crazy! I have nightmares to this day!

[scottishdude28]

Yeah I was ucky at the time I was called in duty for work at the time and if I didnt go to work I would of been killed.

[aldfjak]

modern technology would have prevented many deaths. the area was under a tornado watch during the day and it was party cloudy.. a lot of people didn't take it serious because of that. then during the night the actual warnings were late and the tornado's unfortunately hit populated areas.