Andy_Johnson's Blog

Last Sunday , December 16, we witnessed a tornado move through portions of Pasco County. Skytower HD VIPIR performed well as I was showing it live on air  from about 4:45 AM to 6:00 AM.The radar clearly picked up the circulation of the tornado.  Doppler radar can show wind, as well as, rain. I noted a gust to 100 MPH on air about the time the tornado was hitting the Land O' Lakes area at 5:15 AM. Fortunately, everyone must have gotten the word about the tornado since no injuries were reported. Most of the time weather in Florida is tranquil but we do get our share of severe weather.

The chart below shows all tornadoes in peninsular Florida (including the Tampa Bay area) durin the period 1950 to 1994. From the graph you can see that tornadoes are fairly rare in December but not unprecedented. November and December are the 2 months having the fewest number of tornadoes. June has the highest number of tornadoes but  most of the summertimes tornadoes are very weak and short lived and associated with afternoon thunderstorms. The exception in the summer  is when the tornadoes are spawned by tropical cyclones. In the winter months, tornadoes are caused by squall lines ahead of cold fronts.

 Even though the highest monthly tornado totals are in the summer, there is a secondary spring maximum in March. Usually, the spring tornadoes are stronger. The graph below shows that the greatest number of strong tornadoes (F2-F4) is in February, March and June. There have been no recorded F5 tornadoes in peninsular Florida.