Early Morning Squalls Hit Manatee Mobile Home Park

Posted Dec 2, 2008 by TBO.com

Updated Dec 2, 2008 at 08:46 AM

News Channel 8 photo by RUGENE MOORE

A line of storms crossing over the Tampa Bay area early this morning spawned a thunderstorm that ripped off screen rooms, awnings and porches through the Sandpiper Mobile Home Park on Bradenton Beach. The passing storm damaged homes on at least three of the park’s seven streets. Siding, screening, patio doors and sheds were tossed around. You can see pictures of the damage here.

Manatee County’s emergency management reported the storm and damage to the weather service around 2 a.m. There were no injuries.

Though the first instinct is to blame a tornado, weather service radar showed no sign that conditions were right for a tornado at the time, and there were no warnings or watches issued.

It’s likely a thunderstorm unwound some strong wind gusts, usually called straight-line winds, that hit the park. In severe storms, those gusts can reach 100 mph, though the winds that hit the park probably weren’t that strong.

The weather service in Ruskin may send a meteorologist to inspect the damage to determine whether it was a tornado. Inspections are the only way the weather service decides whether damage was caused by a tornado or wind gusts, though if it’s your lanai that got ripped up, it probably doesn’t matter which it was.

The squall line, not as deep or powerful as the one that came through Sunday, will usher in another cold front to drop temperatures to below freezing from Hernando County north and into the 40s or even high 30s in Pasco and Hillsborough.

With the squall line making a sunrise appearance on the East Coast, some dry, Canadian air will follow as the winds die down. The afternoon temperatures may snuggle in the low 60s today. That’s about 8 degrees cooler than it gets in late December and early January, typically the coldest time in the Tampa Bay area.