Tornado warnings woke up Flagler County residents in two locations Wednesday morning, at 2:45 a.m. and shortly afterward, but “there was no sign of touchdown anywhere in Flagler County reported to us,” Flagler County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord said. The county remains under a tornado watch until early afternoon.
A tornado warning is triggered either when weather radar picks up a rotation in storm clouds, or when a weather spotter does so. The first warning was issued following an alert from the area of Crescent Lake, as the storm was moving east at 40 miles per hour along State Road 100, through Bunnell and that portion of Palm Coast, to Flagler Beach and Beverly Beach.
The storm was accompanied by almost continuous lightning, heavy downpours and wind that left a trail of light debris behind—tree limbs and brush–but no reported damage more serious than that. “The rotation does not mean it made it to the ground, it may stay well above, which is what happened this morning,” Lord said. “Which is OK, I’d rather have them that way.”
Shortly afterward, another tornado warning was issued for the south end of the county in rural areas, coming in from the north of Volusia. “Neither one of those had any report of any noticeable damage anywhere in our county,’ Lord said. “Nothing significant, no calls to 911 related to it, no calls to us either. We were up watching it all.”
The unsettled weather continues through midday, though most of it is concentrated in the Volusia-Brevard area.
