March 1983 South Florida tornado outbreak El Niño. The Everglades–Lighthouse Point tornado featured the second-longest path recorded south of Lake Okeechobee; only one tornado in 1968 featured a longer path of in southern Florida. March 1983 South Florida tornado outbreak The March 1983 South Florida tornado outbreak was a significant severe weather event that affected the southern Florida peninsula, including the Miami metropolitan area, on March 17, 1983. A total of at least five tornadoes affected the region as many as 17 were reported, only two were confirmed in the official National Weather Service records. The strongest tornado produced F2 damage on the Fujita scale and
South Central Florida Express, Inc. at Marcy and interchanges with the Florida East Coast Railway at Fort Pierce, with haulage rights to CSX and Norfolk Southern at Jacksonville, Florida. The of track on the west side of Lake Okeechobee between Sebring and Lake Harbor was previously a CSX line (Sebring Subdivision along the mainline to the sugar fields, and Okeelanta Subdivision on the spur to Lake Harbor). The northernmost 42 miles of the west side between Sebring and Harrisburg (just south of Palmdale) was built in 1916 by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad as part of an effort to extend their Haines City Branch south