THEWEATHERMOGIL:: Third severe weather event in a week underway
Last weekend, an EF-2 tornado struck Cape Coral, FL (near Fort Myers, FL). The storm produced significant damage and injured three during its nearly three and a half mile trek through Lee County.
On Fri., Jan. 15, an EF-1 tornado struck parts of Lee County damaging a few buildings and causing sporadic power outages. A few severe storms accompanied this tornado yielding damage to pool cages and other easily airborne outside items.
This Sunday morning, the third such event in roughly a week has started across south Florida. Shortly after 3:00 a.m. E.S.T., a tornado apparently touched down about 5 miles south of Sarasota, FL. The twister damaged some condos and caused other scattered damage.
Radar at 4:44 a.m. E.S.T. showed a line of intense thunderstorms moving into southwest Florida (Fig. 1). Numerous watches and warnings cover southwest Florida and nearby Gulf of Mexico waters.
The line is moving to the east, while individual thunderstorms are racing to the east-northeast. There was at least one cell to the southwest of Naples that was starting to exhibit a cloud level rotation center (Fig. 2).
The line of storms will be exiting southwest Florida shortly after sunrise. It will take until late morning until the line clears all of south Florida.
Once the line passes and winds shift to northwest, winds, even stronger that were present early this morning, will move into the area. These winds will be capable of doing minor property and tree damage and will make for some hazardous driving conditions. More importantly, coastal wave action, leading to rip currents and beach erosion, will increase.
This is a potentially dangerous situation. Be prudent and keep abreast of rapidly changing weather conditions and take shelter should severe weather threaten.
© 2016 H. Michael Mogil
Originally posted 1/17/16