A powerful squall line with embedded tornadoes tore through the Panhandle early this morning.
This line of storms moved through the western Panhandle overnight and into the capitol region before sunrise this morning. Several tornado warnings were triggered by strong areas of radar-indicated rotation detected by the Tallahassee radar, before the storm temporarily disabled the NWS Tallahassee radar.
Following the severe weather, Governor Ron DeSantis issued Executive Order 24-94 to include 12 counties under a state of emergency from severe weather impacting the state of Florida. Counties included in the executive order are: Baker, Columbia, Gadsden, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lafayette, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Suwannee, Taylor, and Wakulla counties.
Winds at the Tallahassee Airport gusted up to 66 miles per hour and a gust of 84 miles per hour was reported at the FAMU campus. National Weather Service meteorologists have not yet surveyed the areas of damage, but Florida Public Radio Emergency Network meteorologist William Maxham says surveys could confirm multiple tornadoes.
"These areas of rotation were clearly defined on radar this morning and there was tree damage all across multiple counties...it may take a while to sort out details of what damage was caused by straight line winds vs a tornado, but there were gusts basically across all Tallahassee that were 65 miles per hour our greater, which is the same as an EF0 tornado," Maxham said.
Nearly 80 thousand customers are still without power in Leon County. The National Weather Service is expected to begin surveying areas damage later this afternoon.
The News Service of Florida reported that severe thunderstorms tore roofs off buildings, knocked over a construction crane and did significant damage to Florida State University’s baseball stadium and iconic circus tent.
Florida State, Florida A&M University and Tallahassee Community College closed because of the storm. Early estimates indicated winds might have reached more than 80 mph.
Power outages in some areas were expected to last through the weekend, as crews remove debris and repair damaged electrical substations.
“The windows were shaking a little bit, and the wind was howling,” FSU student Kylie Robinson said. “You could hear it. I knew it was close, so I went into my bathroom. I watched the lights slowly start to flicker, and then they finally went out.”
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