Flagler County and its cities, including Palm Coast, are under a tornado watch until 5 p.m. as a storm front sweeping across Florida from north to south approaches the region. About a dozen counties north and west of Flagler are under the watch.
A tornado watch indicates severe-storm conditions that are favorable for the development of tornadoes. It is different from a tornado warning, which, once issued in your area, means a tornado is either likely or has been spotted, and taking immediate shelter in an interior room of a house or in a reinforced building is essential.
“This is not something to ignore but it’s also not something to fear either,” Flagler County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord said just before 1:30 this afternoon, as EOC was monitoring the storm on radar. “They key thing is to make sure you can get alerts.”
AlertFlagler is the free emergency alert system for residents. It issues alert by text, home phone, cell phone, work phone and email in real time. You can sign up here.
The line of storms approaching Flagler County barreled through the country’s midsection Tuesday and today, spawning several tornadoes, including more than one in Kentucky, as it moved east and causing one confirmed death in Oklahoma, according to weather reports. The storm was unleashing hurricane-force winds in some areas.
The National Weather Service in Jacksonville cautioned that along with the storm,. strengthening non-thunderstorm wind gusts are expected, reaching near 40 mph across portions of the region. The severe thunderstorms are capable of damaging winds of 50 to 70 mph, with isolated tornadoes and hail. Hazardous small craft conditions will develop in Atlantic waters and along the t. Johns River. Localized flooding in flood-prone areas is possible.
“Any time there’s a storm watch we need to be concerned and paying attention to weather conditions, but the key thing to know is that tornado watch means conditions could be ripe for developing tornadoes,” Lord said. The county’s weather spotters are on the alert, he said.
While warnings are issued when witnesses and technology detect rotating clouds, not all tornadoes are caught that way, as technology isn’t entirely capable of immediate detection, Lord said. That was the case with the last tornado that touched down in Palm Coast, last October. The F1 tornado struck before dawn, seriously damaged three homes and wrecked many a backyard.
Lord said the tornado watch may get extended or cut short depending on the storm’s behavior in the next few hours. While Floridians are used to afternoon storms that behave similarly to the one approaching, it’s important, he said, to “just to really be aware and know what you’re going to do if a tornado waring is to be issued, or if you’re outside and you see a rotation–get to safety.” That means indoors, away from windows, where flying debris could smash through.
