From a mobile home rendered “practically unrecognizable” to a trail of broken glass, torn roofs and overturned cars, a National Weather Service preliminary report released Friday traces a tropical tornado’s 30-minute path of destruction as it rotated through Wellington, The Acreage. Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter Farms on Wednesday afternoon ahead of Hurricane Milton.
The tornado caused seven injuries but no deaths as it moved through northern Palm Beach County, according to the report.
The tornado, propelled by Hurricane Milton, was the product of conditions such as daytime heating, dry air and rapid changes in wind direction and speed that maximized its strength, Miami-based Weather Service meteorologist Sammy Hadi said Saturday.
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The result was a tornado of unusual strength that collapsed the roof of a just-completed Publix supermarket and dealt unexpected blows to year-old homes built to the latest storm specifications in the growing Avenir community in western Palm Beach Gardens, Hadi noted: smashing impact-resistant windows and tossing cars for at least 100 yards.
With winds up to 140 miles per hour and sometimes 650 to 1,000 feet wide (two to three times the length of a football field), the tornado likely traveled more than 30 miles in Palm Beach County before crossing the Martin County line. . Its impact will be documented in coming weeks as the National Weather Service office in Melbourne monitors the tornado’s path there.
The preliminary report released Friday evening details the destruction over a 34-kilometre stretch from a leveled double-wide mobile home in the Rustic Ranches section of Wellington to damaged homes and trees as the tornado passed through the communities of Lakefield West, Meadow Wood and Binks Forest . , crossed Southern Boulevard and gathered strength as it approached Northlake Boulevard on the north side of The Acreage.
The storm “did its greatest damage” in the community of Avenir, the report said.
But much of the tornado’s power remained immeasurable as it sped through open fields. Additionally, radar data and video footage from west Delray Beach indicate that the path extended far south and exceeded 30 miles.
NWS rates a tornado’s strength based on wind speed and the damage it leaves behind on a scale named after meteorologist Ted Fujita and refined in 2007 as the “Enhanced Fujita” – EF – in categories starting at 0, considered “weak” with wind speeds from 65 -85 mph to 5, “violent” with winds exceeding 200 mph. The Milton tornado was categorized as an EF3, with wind speeds ranging from 130 to 165 mph.
The tornado that moved from Wellington to the Martin County line on Wednesday was unusually powerful for a tropical tornado, Hadi said Saturday, but not unheard of. One EF3 tornado was recorded earlier this storm season during Hurricane Bertha and another more recently during Hurricane Helene.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Report: Tornado carved a 21-mile path through Palm Beach County
