High Wind — Lake, Florida

2004-09-04 to 2004-09-05 · Lake, Florida

Wider weather episode

The center of category 2 Hurricane Frances reached the Florida East near Sewall's point in Martin County early on September 5th but began spreading hurricane force wind gusts across most of Central Florida by 11 pm on September 4th. Frances entered Central Florida moving west northwest at 7 mph and maintained hurricane strength as it crossed the east half of the Florida Peninsula. Frances was downgraded to a tropical storm in the afternoon on the 5th when it was about 50 miles east of Tampa Bay. In Okeechobee County, little direct observational wind data is available, but wind estimates from the Hurricane Research Division show sustained hurricane force winds over most of the county as Frances crossed the county from east to west. Almost 700 residences were destroyed, with damage to 22,688 residences.Osceola County also suffered extensive wind damage to homes, mobile homes and businesses. Again, little wind data was available after the storm, but hurricane force wind gusts were estimated to have occurred over all of the county. Lake, Orange and Seminole counties were also hit hard by the rain bands on the north side of Hurricane Frances. Extensive damage to residences, businesses and public buildings were reported across the counties. It is difficult to assess damage amounts since the areas was swept by Hurricane Jeanne a few weeks later. The Lake County damage estimate was over 6 million dollars. Orlando International Airport reported a gust to 60 kts (69 mph). Sanford reported a gust to 61 kts (70 mph), and a home weather station in Clermont reported a gust to 56 kts (64 mph). Widespread damage in all the counties suggests that the area was swept by hurricane force wind gusts. Significant damage was done to the area landscape industry around Apopka.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5424909. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.