Severe weather alerts include tornado warnings for Florida in advance of front
The coming cold front isn’t arriving without some fuss as the National Weather Service has had a busy day issuing weather alerts, including a tornado warning for Palm Beach County.
The first significant weather advisory for Central Palm Beach County suggested wind gusts of 50 to 55 mph and funnel clouds are possible. Rain began to move into Broward around noon and hit parts of Miami-Dade by rush hour.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office in northwest Central Florida said a tornado touched down early Thursday morning and damaged several homes and tore up the grounds at the Tuscanooga Baptist Church cemetery.
A special marine warning was also issued from Deerfield Beach to Ocean Reef — excluding the territorial waters of Bahamas, and the waters from Jupiter Inlet to Deerfield Beach.
Northern Hendry, eastern Glades, and northwestern Palm Beach counties were all warned about wind gusts over 45 mph and funnel clouds into the 10 a.m. hour.
Southeast Florida, including Miami-Dade and Broward started to see conditions begin to deteriorate after noon and rain and thunderstorms hit by 5 p.m. but the risk for severe storms is lower than it is in parts of Central Florida and the Western Panhandle.
The storms and showers are bringing in a cold front that could plunge temperatures to just below freezing in the Panhandle and mid-30s in Gainesville Friday into Saturday.
South Florida will be warmer, with lows in the upper 50s.
The warm start to Thursday, with highs pushing 80 degrees, could help develop the predicted storms.
This story is being updated.
This story was originally published January 24, 2019 at 9:48 AM.
