November Tornado Risk
Orlando, Florida - For the month of November, most of our rain, storm activity and potential severe weather occurs near and along cold fronts pushing through Florida. The most likely risk area for Florida lies in the western Panhandle (near Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach), with a larger risk area across east Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama. However, if the dynamics are just right, we can have November tornadoes here in Central Florida. In 1997, an F3 tornado (winds 158-206mph) hit New Smyrna Beach just before 1:00 am on November 2. While miraculously nobody died from this tornado, over $10 million damage occurred. You can read the National Weather Service field report and see photographs from this tornado here https://www.weather.gov/media/mlb/surveys/110297.pdf