'Not your average day,' meteorologist says about tornado flipping truck, damaging roof in SLC
ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A tractor trailer on Florida’s Turnpike flipped Monday evening as a tornado crossed the roadway and damaged a building on West Angle Road, according to the National Weather Service in Melbourne.
It was one of a number of remarkable weather events Monday evening that included three-quarter inch hail in Stuart, 8.22 inches of rain in the Nettles Island area and 2.19 inches in Fort Pierce, Tim Sedlock, lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Melbourne, said Tuesday.
“It's not your average day, that's for sure,” Sedlock said. “Everything came together just right, and some areas got a lot of rain and some hail and even an isolated tornado. So it can happen, but it's not your average day.”
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He said an EF-0 — the lowest strength — tornado touched down in north central St. Lucie County about 7 miles west-southwest of Lakewood Park in a field north of the turnpike and west of Interstate 95. Peak winds with the tornado were estimated between 65 and 70 mph.
He said it traveled slowly to the southeast, crossing the Turnpike around mile marker 161, which is about 9 miles north of Okeechobee Road, about 6:14 p.m.
“One tractor trailer traveling on the turnpike was flipped over” by the tornado or strong winds associated with it, Sedlock said.
'Watching the roof blow off our barn'
The tornado continued southeast where it damaged the roof of a building along the 14500 block of West Angle Road, he said.
That address is where Stephanie Goings Trenary, 45, lives.
She was watching a television news broadcast Monday and heard a report of a “center rotation.” She sat in a chair at a desk to look out the window “and I saw it form,” Trenary said.
Trenary ran to the back porch where her husband was grilling steaks.
“I said, ‘Babe, you got to come here quick. I think I just saw a tornado form. I'm not sure,’ she said. “I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.”
The wind blew plants down, she said.
“He's screaming on the back porch, pulling on the door with all of his weight. I'm throwing my weight against the door to try and get it to open, and the tornado created some sort of suction where we couldn't get the door open,” Trenary said.
“As we're doing all of that, we're watching the roof blow off of our barn and hit the top of our house and hit the powerlines and sparking, and our camper turned over.”
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Trenary said their home is habitable, with some lost shingles, but nothing like the barn.
“It peeled the roof off of our barn like it was a banana,” she said.
She said she thought she was watching her husband die.
“I could see everything unfolding behind him, all of the roof coming off,” she said. “I could see everything going on behind him as I'm trying frantically to get the door open and he's trying even more frantically because he's stuck out in it.”
She said she and her husband, who own an asphalt repair and maintenance business, wound up being OK, as did two rescued dogs and a rescued mother cat and kittens.
“It was the scariest thing I've ever been through,” Trenary said.
Wet season is here
Sedlock said the tornado later dissipated.
He said there were no reports of a second tornado.
Sedlock said the wet season has “pretty much” arrived, and it was warm and humid.
“Sea breezes on both ends of the coast were pretty active,” he said. “We also had a little help from some energy aloft, as well, that was crossing the area so that kind of helped enhance activity during the afternoon, early evening.”
About 8:10 p.m. Monday, the NWS received a report of three-quarter inch hail in Stuart.
“I'm sure there were others but we just haven't received those reports,” Sedlock said.
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Rain also was intense in the area of downtown Stuart.
Sedlock noted heavy rain near the coast area along the St. Lucie and Martin county border.
“There's some 5-inch reports,” Sedlock said.
Over the next couple of days, he said there could still be some strong storms, but more inland.
“We're in the wet season now,” Sedlock said. “So basically your scattered afternoon and evening storms is kind of the norm.”
Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on Twitter @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com
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This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Tornado flips truck on Florida Turnpike; structure damaged in St. Lucie
