1988 Ocala, Florida Tornado

**1988 Ocala, Florida Tornado**

The ***1988 Ocala, Florida Tornado*** was a destructive and costly, F5-rated tornado that struck Ocala, Florida in the late afternoon hours of February 4, 1988. In all, 2 people died, along with 57 injuries, and $100 million (1988 USD) in damages.

## Meteorology

At roughly 4:00 PM EST, several radars picked up several thunderstorms widespread throughout most of central Florida. In addition, there was also a Moderate Risk issued over a very wide area of Florida. In addition, on this same day, 17 tornadoes raked through Florida before this one, all of which were part of a relatively localized outbreak that ended up forming the very first Floridian F5 tornado in history.

At 4:38 PM EST, extremely strong rotation was confirmed not far from Ocala, and tornado warnings were issued at 4:40 PM. At 4:54 PM, the tornado quickly formed and touched the ground, and quickly caused severe damage.

### Tornado

The tornado touched the ground just over 2 miles outside of Ocala, FL, at 4:54 PM, heading southwest at 40 miles per hour. At first, it caused minor damage to a local forestry station, but however, it rapidly intensified from F-0 to F-3 intensity within what was estimated to be just over 30 seconds while traveling a path just over NE 40th Avenue Road. 2 minutes after forming, the tornado caused severe damage to the Ocala Springs Elementary School, with all but a dozen or so rooms completely destroyed, already prompting tornado warnings; it was estimated that the tornado was at least a very high-end F-3 at this spot, especially with nearby surrounding trees within the immediate vicinity being heavily uprooted, with several larger trees even moved almost 150 feet in some cases.

Crossing over NE 36th Avenue, it left several homes, including one brick house, absolutely leveled, with two outbuildings completely swept away with foundations almost clean of debris. The tornado quickly widened and kept intensifying over this area, causing very high-end F-3 to low-end F-4 damage to countless trees that were directly in its path. Although the tornado then turned slightly to the northwest very slowly, but not before hitting several areas of suburb Ocala, most notably within NE 49th Street.

Before long, the tornado raked over the residences of 49th Street, causing widespread catastrophic damage to property across the entire area, with several injuries quickly confirmed. It killed one resident in a well-built brick home that was absolutely leveled, with many wooden homes in the path of the tornado being completely swept away. After a few minutes, it was then heading in a northwest direction, slowly weakening. It would cut a swath of destruction up to three city blocks wide and over 40 blocks long within the northern suburbs of Ocala. Near an intersection of US-301 and NE 49th, it left four well-built and well-anchored homes completely swept away, adding an extra fatality. Near that same intersection, countless trees were uprooted, denuded and torn from their original places, with many being carried considerable distances. Multiple homes nearby were also completely destroyed shortly afterwards, injuring many civilians.

It continued a few minutes, mostly going over trees and flat plains for the most part, and weakening relatively quickly; despite this, it still caused F-2 damage to several relatively isolated homes along the rest of its path. However, before it could potentially strengthen again, it entirely dissipated at 5:05 PM, after traveling for 7.3 miles, killing 2 people and leaving 57 others injured.

## Summary

 File:Rainsville ground scouring.png
It was by far the strongest tornado in central Florida history, and it was one of the most destructive. It was also one of the narrowest F5 tornadoes in history, not even 1/4 of a mile wide. It left 94 homes completely destroyed, and caused major damage to 402 homes. In total, roughly $75 million [1988 USD] was confirmed in its path. Ground-scouring and wind-rowing was confirmed over NE 49th Street, which was something unseen previously in Floridian history; meteorologists confirmed from this that this was indeed one of the most powerful tornados yet seen (at the time), and speculations include wind speeds that were, briefly, up to almost 280 miles per hour.
It was considered very fortunate that the areas hit had generally very well-built homes and were somewhat relatively far from the downtown areas, alongside the fact that the tornado, while initially taking a southweast path, turned to the northwest; otherwise, the catastrophe would have been far worse. Additionally, a relatively long warning time for 1988 of around ~14 minutes most certainly contributed to the relatively low casualties.