1/22/10 DISC: FL

[Jason Harris]

Got up early, had sort of a curious feeling, and there was a tornado warning, though just a messy mass of showers, and as far as rotation goes on GR3 that wasn't anything I could really perceive, but since it was my county and pretty close, and the next section coming along looked just as likely (and that wasn't much but the local mets were relatively excited), I stayed out about an hour. Sure enough a new tornado warning popped up on the weather radio for the next storm, and I drove near the beach up and back in the warning area, parking at a couple of beachside areas, seeing nothing but heavy rain and some scud. Somebody apparently may have seen a small tornado, actually a little closer to where I was living rather than driving since Suntree then Viera are the next little suburban blips to the N. but damage to a screen porch could just be a gust:

--from SPC storm report
1238 UNK 5 S ROCKLEDGE BREVARD FL 2825 8072 DAMAGE TO SCREEN PORCH OF A HOUSE IN THE VIERA AREA. POSSIBLE TORNADO (MLB)

---tv reporting is showing trees down in Rockledge and claim residents heard a lot of noise

*update, tornado confirmed:

1238 5 S ROCKLEDGE BREVARD FL 2825 8072 EF0 TORNADO CONFIRMED WITH WINDS ESTIMATED 65-75 MPH AND A PATH LENGTH ESTIMATED AROUND 6 MILES FROM NEAR JACQUES DRIVE IN VIERA TO DEL SOL DRIVE ON MERRITT ISLAND (MLB)

Some reports coming in for wind damage around Cocoa Beach/Patricks airforce base, which is close to where I had originally positioned, but to no avail. Apparently some people saw a waterspout crossing the Indian River (really more of a lagoon), which would be the West side of my position, which was by the Atlantic. On the plus side, I spoke to security at Patricks Airforce base and they explained the beaches there are open to the public, so those parking lots are viable--good to know. I assumed they weren't because of the airforce base signs at the entrances.

**70-80 homes alleged damaged. Keep in mind, it can't be that bad: EF0 after all.

***SPC reports two other tornadoes for the Cocoa Beach/Patricks Airforce base area. Sure didn't show up at any distance when I was looking around there driving on A1A:

1241 5 WNW PATRICK AIRFORCE AMZ552 FL 2826 8069 TREES TOPPLED AND SNAPPED, MINOR STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO 6 HOMES NEAR US1 AND VIERA BLVD. DAMAGE FROM EF0 TORNADO. (MLB)

1248 5 S COCOA BEACH BREVARD FL 2827 8061 MINOR DAMAGE TO SEVERAL UNITS OF AN APARTMENT BUILDING AND VEHICLE DAMAGE NEAR A1A AND 36TH STREET SOUTH. DAMAGE FROM EF0 TORNADO. (MLB)

 

[Jason Harris]

Here's the NWS report that includes the EF0s:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=mlb&storyid=47116&source=0

 

[Jason Harris]

280 homes affected turns out. The descriptions from some folks makes this
sound a bit more dramatic than one would expect:
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100123/NEWS01/1230329/1006/news01/280+homes+hit+in+Viera+|+VIDEO

excerpt from page 2:

Christine Maxwell, a retiree living in Grand Isle, a gated 55-plus community, said a neighbor was among the injured.

Multiple homes, including her own, sustained roof damage, she said. Elsewhere, screens were ripped out, patio furniture was sucked onto lawns and attic insulation wafted in the air like snow, she said.

"I have been through several hurricanes but this was the scariest moment of all," Maxwell said. "Looking now at the blue sky, it's hard to believe the weather was as bad as it was."

In Six Mile Creek, gutters, pool enclosures and shingles ripped away from homes on Jacques and Lionel drives were strewn onto the sidewalk and street alongside branches, uprooted trees, overturned trash cans and other debris.

Hasna Dalaq, 48, described how her morning coffee was interrupted when she yelled for her husband and daughter to take shelter from the large twister cloud approaching her Crane Creek Boulevard home.