EF0 Tornado — Indian River, Florida

2024-10-09 · near Blue Cypress Lake, Indian River, Florida

Event narrative

The tornado that initially touched down in Okeechobee County and impacted two solar farms crossed briefly into Indian River County where it was tracked via a tornado debris signature (TDS) on KMLB radar. There is no known damage to infrastructure.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Milton moved ashore the west-central Florida coast as a category 3 hurricane on Oct 9 around 1930EST. The system continued slowly in an east-northeast trajectory across central Florida, becoming a category 1 hurricane before emerging into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Canaveral. The outer rainbands of Milton overspread the Florida peninsula earlier in the day, leading to a prolific tornado outbreak across Okeechobee, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, Osceola and Brevard counties with over 19 confirmed tornadoes within a 4-hour period. Milton's slow forward motion produced very heavy rainfall, with significant urban and street flooding particularly near and north of the center's track, as well as a significant river flood event along the St. Johns. Considerable tree damage and some structural damage occurred due to the system's tropical storm force winds, and hurricane force wind gusts, particularly near and north of the track of the center.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (27.6430, -80.8220)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1221441. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.