Monster tornadoes that hit Palm Beach County are rare, like ones in Texas
WELLINGTON - By Florida standards the tornado in Wellington and another one in Palm Beach Gardens in Palm Beach County are monster storms.
The National Weather Service confirms they were EF 3 tornadoes, like you might see in Texas. They're the only two on record in South Florida in the past 17 years.
"It's unparalleled. I never thought, I mean, I had seen Oklahoma, Kansas, places like that that get these," Jon Hardy, who has a lot of damage around his home in Wellington said.
Some of the columns in front came down. And what used to be a tree-lined drive is now piles of debris in front yards.
"Basically came from the right side, over my house," Hardy said. "So we had to tarp this immediately, because I would say 80% of the tiles, and those are the heavy, thick Florida tiles, have come off the house."
Video shows the power of the twister taking down a pool cage in just seconds and dragging everything on a patio toward the swirling storm. A record 15 tornadoes touched down in South Florida on Oct. 9, one day before Hurricane Milton struck the Florida Gulf Coast.
"Only 1% of landfalling hurricanes produce tornadoes of EF 3 ratings or greater. So this is a rarity," Next Weather meteorologist KC Sherman said.
She explained we usually see much weaker storms here, but in this case we had the right ingredients to form Texas-like tornadoes.
"We had that sunshine that really kind of bumped up the instability," Sherman said. "It bumped up the warmth. That sunshine warmed up the air, and we had a whole lot of humidity. And I think it's that kind of setup that really allowed for these robust, strong tornadoes when you also get that wind field."
The National Weather Service reports on Oct. 9, 126 tornado warnings were issued statewide with 55 of those were in South Florida.
Several tornadoes also struck in Martin and St. Locie counties. Six people died when two tornadoes hit manufactured homes near Fort Pierce. A dog was rescued from the rubble there with help from a CBS Miami crew.