Lees net dat het wellicht met El Niño te maken heeft:
The outbreak of severe weather reminded many meteorologists and others of the Groundhog Day Storm nine years earlier.
Forecasters had predicted the possibility of a repeat performance by nature this year, noting the existence of the same El Niño conditions that helped fuel the 1998 storms.
El Niño, which occur when water in the eastern Pacific Ocean becomes unusually warm, can bend the jet stream and propel strong cold fronts into and through Florida. When a cold front meets warm, tropical air -- as one did in Central Florida on Friday morning -- severe weather often erupts.
''This was a pretty classic El Niño event,'' said Robert Molleda, the National Weather Service's warning coordinator for South Florida.
He noted that three weeks after the Groundhog Day Storm, a bevy of tornadoes pummeled Central Florida, killing 42 people. There is a lesson there, he said.
''This is the time of year -- February through April and even into May -- when we can get tornadoes in Florida from these cold fronts, especially in an El Niño year,'' Molleda said. ``We need to continue to be alert.''