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The weather of the last few weeks is lining up to parallel another very violent and scary weather time in Osceola from years past.
Our weather’s been weird this year. I joked a couple weeks ago about the “Wacky weather wheel”— warm, cold, sunny, rainy, cloudy, windy, all in the span of two or three days.
Things have normal-ed out a bit, like they should. They say Florida in January and February rationalize Florida in August and September, so from about early December to late March, this is supposed to be paradise, right?
It wasn’t paradise in 1998.
What does the weather from a season over 25 years ago have to do with right now, when things seem to be pretty calm?
Weather experts or emergency management officials could tell you, but I’m afraid you might tune them out, as it’s their job to relay that message. I’m hoping you’ll listen to me.
If you’ve seen the weather headlines, it’s been a real mess in California and on the Pacific coast the last couple of weeks. High winds, heavy rains, coastal flooding, and just plain bad weather in places—like San Diego and Los Angeles—that should have some of the country’s best weather this time of year.
But a very strong El Niño pattern has created bad weather for them, and explains some of the sketchy weather we had in January.
And 1998 set up just like it. If you lived here then, you’ll remember a deadly EF3 tornado rolled from Intercession City past Buenaventura Lakes and through the Boggy Creek area during the night of Feb. 22, tearing through the Ponderosa RV Park, Lakeside Estates and Morningside Acres. It killed 25 people who couldn’t do anything about it—or simply weren’t aware.
That summer, the area experience historic hot and dry conditions, lacking the near-daily thunderstorms that cool and hydrate the land. The result was a number of area brush fires, some burning huge areas.
I was discussing that with Osceola Emergency Management Director Bill Litton, and he reminded me the Flagler County— the whole thing—was evacuated due to the fires, and the first time the Pepsi 400 race at Daytona was set to run at night, it had to be postponed until October.
And, as I watch what’s going in California, it looks a lot like what it did there this time in 1998. And lives were also lost during an El Niño- fueled tornado outbreak north of Orlando on Groundhog Day 2007.
I don’t mean to sound alarm bells, especially when the weather is fine here. But, if something does happen, I don’t want 25 families to mourn the loss of a loved on to weather they could have seen coming.
What we have going for us in 2024 is the technology to better predict when severe weather is approaching the area, that also uses multiple channels to get that information into people’s hands and ears.
That’s where Bill Litton’s team comes in.
“We started working with our partners at the National Weather Service in November, right after hurricane season ended,” he said. “We are prepared now with those extra layers of communication, the technology to send alerts (text ‘Alert Osceola’ to 888777 for messages right to your phone) so people can take action. Now, those lives that could be in danger can be saved.”
He and I both recalled how those of you in this area took a severe line of thunderstorms that rolled through here in the afternoon drive time about a month ago seriously. Government agencies and employers, like us at the paper—downtown Kissimmee was a ghost town late that afternoon— released workers to get home or a safe location before the storms hit.
The attention then goes to those living in mobile homes and similar structures, about going to someone’s stronger-built house or a community building in the neighborhood that would be a better option in severe weather.
Litton said state emergency officials participated in Severe Weather Week last week, which included a statewide tornado drill last Wednesday. It’s good practice; while we can spit out an arm-length list of things to do ahead of a hurricane that slowly marches toward us for days, lack of experience, or “tornado amnesia” could prove deadly without awareness of the weather, especially during the night, when the deadly 1998 tornado struck. (Litton’s strong advice: get a NOAA weather radio that can sound warnings when you’re sleeping.)
“According to the patterns we’re seeing, there could be the buildup of severe weather in Central Florida through April,” said Litton, who also noted that this El Niño pattern could switch to a La Niña period in the summer—which tends to enhance hurricane activity. But, one season at a time.
Just keep doing what you can to keep your families safe in the face of changing weather. We’ll do the same for you.
