The city of Tavares
is cleaning up after an EF-0 tornado caused damage to a mile-long stretch of U.S. Highway 441 on Independence Day.
The minor tornado that scattered diners at Jim Jordan’s restaurant and panicked Fourth of July boaters on Lake Eustis is one of about 15 likely to occur in Florida this summer, a National Weather Service meteorologist said Thursday.
“They’re very common here,” said meteorologist Jessie Smith, who keeps a tally of Florida’s twisters.
Wednesday’s tornado, classified as an EF-0, or the least powerful category on a scale that has been used since 2007 to rate the intensity of cyclonic storms, caused minor damage in a milelong stretch of U.S. Highway 441 in Tavares about 2:35 p.m. Smith said the storm was not intense enough to trigger weather-radio alerts.
“Nothing too bad,” said Tavares police Sgt. Sarah Coursey, department spokeswoman. “Nobody was hurt.”
Police, firefighters and other city workers cleaned up fallen tree limbs and other storm debris afterward, and the city’s parade and fireworks show on Lake Dora went on as planned.
“But it was a nightmarish thing,” said restaurateur Jordan, who estimated 80 patrons were inside the waterfront diner, the Fish Camp on Lake Eustis, when it started shaking.
“It took us a second,” he said of the confusion. “We decided it’s not a military attack, and it’s not the end of the world. Tornado was the only possible explanation.”
The storm blew out the menu marquee and knocked a hole in the restaurant roof, but glass windows stayed intact. Roofers patched the hole Thursday, and Jordan is hoping he can reopen Monday or Tuesday.
Next door, the tornado shoved a Dumpster from Lake Tire & Auto into the northbound lanes of U.S. 441. Farther east, winds mangled an aluminum-sided warehouse, which collapsed. Nearby, the tornado flipped a pool float 30 feet up into a tree, where it was still marooned Thursday, and tore up fencing at Lake Frances Estates, a 55-and-older mobile-home park.
Boaters on Lake Eustis also posted dramatic video footage of a twister churning behind them as they sped toward shore.
No injuries or major damage was reported elsewhere in the county.
“We were very lucky,” said Tommy Carpenter, Lake County Emergency Management manager.
It was the first reported tornado in Lake County since Hurricane Irma spawned a twister that tore through a neighborhood in Umatilla last September.
Florida is one of the most twister-prone states, though tornadoes here rarely approach the strength of those in other states, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Tornadoes develop from thunderstorms, often spawned by colliding sea breezes.
“That’s basically what happens every day in the summer here in Florida,” meteorologist Smith said.
But most of these weak Florida tornadoes don’t get much attention because they lack punch to inflict injuries or cause significant damage.
Using National Weather Service data beginning in 1950, Smith counted 1,127 tornadoes in Florida during June, July and August that would fit the definition for storms classified as an EF-0 or an EF-1, which have winds of 110 mph or less.
The Tavares twister was measured at 70 to 80 mph by the weather service.
Smith said people are rarely injured by those weak tornadoes unless something freaky happens or they try to do something they shouldn’t — such as drive a boat through a waterspout, a tornado over water.
Tornadoes in February or early spring can be more powerful and deadly because they tend to arise from severe weather conditions and an intense thunderstorm preceding a cold front, according to FloridaDisaster.org, the state Division of Emergency Management website.
Tornadoes on Feb. 2, 2007, that killed 21 people in Lake County fit that category of storm.