EF1 tornado in Sumter County, Florida

The tornado was visually seen on the leading edge of a damaging squall line and it snapped softwood pine trees in its path. Downed trees blocked Highway 301 in Sumterville.

A stalled frontal boundary was in place across central Florida. As the boundary began to lift north drawing in abundant warm moist air over the area, an upper level disturbance moved over the area and a squall line developed and quickly moved across the northern half of the area. Several areas of damaging winds and a tornado resulted from this fast moving line on March 30th. The warm front continued to lift north over northern Florida as a developing low pressure system shifted into the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. As this system moved across northern Florida, the cold front pushed into the local area and another series of squall lines moved across the area through the day on March 31st. Several tornadoes and areas of damaging winds occurred across the greater Tampa Bay area.