Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.
A thunderstorm that rolled through Jefferson County on the evening of Wednesday, May 20, brought a little more than lightning, thunder and rain to the residents of the county.
The thunderstorm had been tracked by Dopplar radar and was documented at moving 12 miles per hour.
While the storm was expected to bring plenty of wind and rain, several county residents got a little more than what they were expecting when at 6:35 p.m., the Jefferson County Communications Center received a 911 call from a citizen regarding a possible tornado that had touched down within the county.
According to Jefferson County Emergency Management, the reports of a tornado had “caught everyone off guard.”
Tornados are typically monitored and announced by National Weather Services' monitoring agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the civilian report of a tornado came before any NOAA announcement could be made – which brought up speculation whether the storm was a tornado or a sudden thunderstorm downburst.
Tornados are a rotating column of air that includes a funnel cloud and may be accompanied by a loud roaring noise. The winds of a tornado's column can range between 65-200+ miles per hour. Emergency Management Director Paula Carroll says that a tornado can sometimes be tracked long enough to allow citizens time to take shelter, but other times, it is impossible to know when or where a tornado will strike until it has already touched down.
Meanwhile, a downburst is a powerful ground-level wind system. Typically, a downburst descends from a thunderstorm and spreads out quickly once it hits the ground; because of the power of the downburst's winds, it can often be confused for an F0 or F1 tornado. A sudden gust from a downburst can reach 130 mph and winds of 58 mph can last for several minutes.
Because of the similarities between the two weather phenomena, NOAA will be investigating Wednesday night’s storm to determine whether it was a tornado or a downburst.
As of press deadline, NOAA had not yet announced any confirmation on the storm's identification.
Whatever the storm was, though, the winds wreaked havoc on several Jefferson County homes and roads.
Before the evening was complete, the 911 communications center, sheriff's office and emergency management had received dozens of calls regarding the storm, such as damaged homes and people who were trapped in their vehicles due to trees blocking the roads.
Trees had fallen across and had completely blocked some of the roads, and the sheriff's office was assisted by the Jefferson County Road Department, Florida Highway Patrol, Jefferson County Fire Rescue as well as G-FAST volunteer crews in clearing away the fallen trees and freeing trapped motorists as well as checking on the locals whose homes had been damaged by the storm.
Crews from Duke Energy and Tri-County Electric worked alongside first responders to restore power to the homes that had suffered outages due to the storm.
“It was a team effort,” says Jefferson County Sheriff Mac McNeill.
Several of the impacted roads were Lloyd Creek Road, Hawkins Road, Clinton Road, Waukeenah Highway, Aucilla Road, Paul Thompson Road and Gamble Road – amongst many others.
Due to the unpredictable nature of tornadoes and severe thunderstorm winds, the National Weather Service stresses the need for people to treat every storm seriously.
When a severe thunderstorm warning is released, people should take shelter and stay off the roads in the same manner as though it was a tornado warning.
For Jefferson County weather warnings, the local Emergency Management office is offering a free text-based alert system.
Nixle allows citizens to be aware of severe weather conditions, missing person alerts, traffic incidents, road closures, bomb threats and other emergency situations.
There is no cost to sign up to receive Nixle alerts from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and signing up is easy – simply text 32344 to 888-777 and begin your registration into the alert program.
You can also visit nixle.com on your computer and sign up to get alerts emailed or texted to you.