EF1 tornado in Polk County, Florida
Tornado March 31, 2011 · Polk County, Florida
NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Polk County → Polk County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.
The path drawn at its surveyed width of 30 yards (0.02 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.
What the National Weather Service wrote
Seven people were injured during the Sun N Fun Festival activities. There were 50 planes that were damaged or destroyed, with several planes overturned. Five campsites were destroyed with several other camp site tents collapsed or blown down. Light towers and other ground equipment also received damage.
The wider storm
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.
Began near (lal)lakeland Muni A (27.9858, -82.0226).
Other tornadoes from the same storm system
8 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 295010. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.
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