‘Night of the Tornadoes:’ This was Florida’s deadliest outbreak. Could it happen again?

ORLANDO, Fla. – On Tuesday evening, several tornado warnings went into effect across Central Florida as severe weather made its way through the state.

However, the worst outbreak of tornadoes in the state’s history broke out over 20 years ago — an incident dubbed the “Night of the Tornadoes.”

According to the NOAA, the outbreak happened in February 1998 between 11 p.m. and 2:30 a.m., wherein seven tornadoes stormed through east-Central Florida.

At the time, three “supercell thunderstorms” — a rare type of long-lasting thunderstorm usually found in the Great Plains — moved in from the Gulf of Mexico.

Thanks to these storms, the following seven tornadoes touched down in Central Florida:

Tornado #1 killed a person along Route 92, damaging or destroying over 600 structures.

Meanwhile, Tornado #2 touched down in rural eastern Lake County. This one wasn’t overly destructive until it moved into Orange County a few minutes later, at which point it killed three people in Winter Garden and wreaked havoc through Ocoee.

Tornado #3 struck several neighborhoods in Sanford, though it ultimately dissipated just after crossing the St. Johns River in Volusia County. It killed 12 people in Seminole County and one person along Route 46 in Volusia County.

However, the deadliest of these was Tornado #4, which touched down near Kissimmee — around 8 miles southwest of the region’s popular theme parks and hotels.

The first fatalities were reported at the Ponderosa RV Park, and Tornado #4 eventually moved into Orange County, though it mainly impacted the rural swampy areas. Despite that, 25 people were killed in the storm, and over 150 people were injured.

Between these seven tornadoes, more than 3,000 different structures were damaged, and over 700 were utterly destroyed.

In all, the twisters killed 42 people and injured more than 260 others, the agency reports. The estimated damage exceeded $100 million.

To put that into perspective, the previous “high tornado death toll” from tornadoes in the state was only 17, which was reported back in 1962.

While the National Weather Service was able to warn many residents in the region of the incoming storms, the NOAA identified four “problem areas” in its warning systems during the incident:

• PROBLEM 1: Numerous residents failed to either properly receive or respond to the warnings and approaching weather. This was likely because the outbreak happened late at night, which is when many of these residents had already gone to bed.
• PROBLEM 2: The Orlando NWR transmitter was off the air for a short while, likely due to a local power interruption. It took several minutes to bring the transmitter back onto the air, so two tornado warnings and several severe storm warnings weren’t broadcast.
• PROBLEM 3: After some tornado warnings were issued, there was a delay of up to eight minutes before they were actually broadcast on the NWR.
• PROBLEM 4: Communication lines experienced issues from around 11:05 - 11:45 p.m.

According to a report by the NOAA, interviews with over 50 residents in the path of the storms revealed that only one of these people knew of and had access to the NOAA’s weather radio.

In addition, there were no outdoor warning siren systems in the areas affected by these storms to alert residents to the tornado threats, the report shows.

Despite this, the report concludes that the NWS provided “excellent” warning services to the regions, with all of Orlando’s TV stations providing up-to-date weather coverage as the storms passed through.

But could it happen again?

“While events like this are rare, as we saw with Tuesday’s storms, when the atmospheric conditions come together, we can see devastating storms,” News 6 meteorologist Julie Broughton explained. “1998 was an El Nino year, which is typically more active with severe weather. And we are in an El Nino year now, so we are expecting similar weather this year.”

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