Funnel Cloud over Coral Springs. {photo by Jamie Scheer.}
By Bryan Boggiano
Residents had quite the view as a funnel cloud made its way south of town near the Sawgrass Expressway on Saturday afternoon.
At 5:40, the National Weather Service in Miami issued a special weather statement saying trained weather spotters reported a funnel cloud near Parkland and west of Margate, or near Coral Springs.
It was moving southeast at 15 mph.
The funnel cloud did not touch down.
At approximately 5:30 p.m., Jamie Scheer was in her bathroom in the Oaks community off Riverside Drive. She was taking a shower and caught the tornado out of the corner of her eye and started filming it.
“I didn’t see any damage to my area, but I saw it move southeast until I couldn’t see it anymore,” she told Coral Springs Talk. “The weather channel didn’t put out a single alert which is crazy because I feel like they post tornado warnings all the time.”
In their forecast discussions, NWS Miami noted a weak cold front over Central Florida. This, coupled with weak boundary collisions, created an environment favorable for the development of scattered storms, a couple of which produced short-lived funnel clouds.
Stronger storms that produce funnel clouds and weak tornadoes are more common in the late spring and summer due to collisions between the Gulf and Atlantic sea breezes.
Over land, air warms faster than over water. This warmer air rises. At the same time, cooler air from both the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico slowly filters in to replace the warmer, rising air.
During the afternoon, the two boundaries moved inland, collided, and lifted. As this air rose, moisture within the air mass condensed to form clouds — the building blocks of showers and storms.
If there is enough instability and moisture, heavy rain, lightning, small hail, funnel clouds, and even weak toe weed may occur.
These storms usually continue through the evening. Once the sun sets, the land cools quicker than the ocean, causing a breeze to flow from land to sea. At that point, storms cease.
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