Observations From The 13 April 2004 Wake Low Damaging Wind Event in South Florida

On Tuesday, April 13, 2004, a high wind event swept across parts of peninsular Florida in the wake of a mesoscale convective system (MCS) of thunderstorms. This is unusual because the winds, which gusted at times to about 70 mph in the vicinity of Lake Okeechobee, were not associated with the thunderstorms themselves, but were on the backside of the system. In fact, little or no rain was falling when the wind event was occurring. This paper presents an analysis of the data leading to and during the event revealing the event was associated with a phenomenon called a 'wake low' pressure system.