Chaos came to Cape Coral on May 17 as three waterspouts touched ground and turned into tornadoes.
The National Weather Service in Ruskin, the office the covers the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area, says one of the waterspouts touched down in Cape Coral as a very strong band of thunderstorms pushed across the region.
Any landspout that makes contact with ground is technically a tornado, but this system was not a traditional tornado that’s easy to see play out on radar.
“It’s sometimes difficult to determine whether or not a tornado actually occurred,” said NWS meteorologist Tony Hurt the day after the storm. “With the one over the Caloosahatchee River, it was probably a land tornado that moved over the river and became a waterspout.”
Winds are estimated to have been near 80 miles per hour, which is the bottom end of a Category 1 hurricane.
The first tornado made landfall near Veterans Parkway and Skyline Boulevard, according to NWS illustrations.
That twister was on the ground for about 3 minutes, and winds were measured at 75 miles per hour, according to NWS reports.
Tornado paths were up to 150 yards wide
The path was more than a half mile long and about 50 yards wide.
The second tornado touched down near U.S. 41 and College Parkway in Fort Myers.
It produced 65 mile per hour winds and was in contact with the ground for about one-tenth of a mile. The maximum path width was 25 yards, according to NWS reports.
A third twister first made contact with the Caloosahatchee River.
This tornado (at that time a waterspout) crossed over the Midpoint bridge and smashed into Fort Myers with 75 mile per hour winds.
It covered more than 2 miles and had a maximum path width of 150 yards.
Tornadoes can be common in the spring months here as there is plenty of cold air aloft and warmer low fronts moving into the region.
Chad Gillis is an environment reporter and can be reached by email at cgillis@news-press.com.
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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: See waterspouts touch down, become tornadoes on May 17 in SW Florida
Reporting by Chad Gillis, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
