Hate Hearing Tornado Near Magic Kingdom!

[mhsjax]

most of florida's tornadoes are water spouts....I've lived here all my life and would definitely call this strange weather-we don't just up and get tornadoes.

Exactly. And yep 48 years here in good ole FL. DH was an air traffic controller and worked the WDW air space. I told him about a pp saying that he didn't think this was strange weather. He told me that in the 20 years of doing his job, they never worried about winter weather in Orlando, what they did worry about was spring and summer weather. That is when it is a real problem.

I remember driving over a bridge to get home from work one summer, I looked over and there was a water spout heading right for me. It was creepy, I was praying for traffic not to back up( it was rush hour) and leave me stranded on the bridge with that crazy thing heading for us.

 

[Feralpeg]

What do you mean strange weather for FL? Florida is more likely to have tornadoes from Feb-April and Jul-Sep with the Feb-Apr being the most serious time. It is almost February after all. I've always heard that winter is prime time for tornadic storms in FL.

I wasn't referring to just the possibility of tornadoes. Local weather people had been saying for several days that we would experience an extreme weather situation. Two very large low pressure areas were meeting up with a high pushing warm moist air from the south. According to the weather people, this particular situation only occurs about every ten years.

I've lived in Florida for almost seven years. While we occasionally experience tornadic activity during the winter months, it certainly isn't a regular event.

 

[Feralpeg]

A spokesman for the National Weather Service just announced that the damage in Groveland was not caused by a tornado, but was the result of straight line winds.

They have yet to determine whether tornadoes were responsible for other damage in the Central Florida area. There were reports of numerous funnel clouds including a picture of a funnel cloud over The Villages.

 

[luvflorida]

We are at St. Pete Beach this week, and I've never experienced weather like we got last night. it was bright and sunny the first half of the day and I spent a glorious morning walking the beach. Late afternoon I walked across the street from the resort we're staying at and spent time shopping at a gift shop.

It had clouded over earlier, but within minutes of entering the shop, the rain started. There were torrential rains, severe winds, thunder and lightening, the employees had to lock the doors to keep them closed. Water was coming in under the doors and the wind and rain kept banging the doors and windows.

Eventually it was safe enough to leave and head back across the street. I'm not kidding when I say there were sections where I had to wade through knee-deep water! My husband is attending a convention here and everyone in the pavilion where the event is being held had to evacuate to a safer area within the resort. Didn't last long and they were allowed back, but several booths and displays had been blown over.

Now, the sun is shining today, and I'm poolside with my iPad. All is good, but it was pretty scary last night! St. Petersburg did sustain some damage from the storm.