ORLANDO, Fla. – Strong storms caused several tornado warnings throughout the Central Florida area Tuesday night, bringing heavy rain, wind and hail.
The first tornado warning began before 7 p.m. in Sumter County. Other warnings popped up for Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Brevard counties before the evening was over.
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Despite the tornado warnings, there was very little storm damage.
The majority of the storms are beginning to wind down, but there’s still some heavy rain, lightning, and strong wind gusts near 40 mph at times as they pass by to the northeast.
A lot of the cities have been cooled down by previous rounds of rain, so a lot of the activity will begin to slow down over the next few hours.
The storm potential will last through 2 to 3 a.m. before letting up and then another round is expected tomorrow afternoon. Those storms will have the same potential as tonight’s and we can’t rule out a brief spin-up.
The main hazards with any passing storm will be wind gusts up to 40-50 mph and pea to penny size hail in addition to lightning and heavy rainfall that could add up to 2-4 inches per hour resulting in flooding, especially along the roadways.
The rain will exit by tomorrow night, leaving behind sunny and dry weather for St. Patrick’s Day.
Highs will stay in the upper 70s to low 80s the next few days. By Friday it will be a bit warmer nearing 90 degrees with isolated showers around heading into the weekend.