SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – A woman traveling on Interstate 4 in Seminole County captured the moment an EF-2 tornado crossed the interstate.
The National Weather Service said the tornado touched down at 9:35 a.m. in Wekiwa Springs and traveled 4 miles across the county, ending at 9:41 a.m. in Lake Mary.
[RELATED: TIMELINE: Here’s the path EF-2 tornado took across Seminole County]
Video from Pamela Tompkins showed traffic stopped on the interstate as heavy rain whipped against vehicles on I-4.
“We’re in the middle of a tornado... not sure what size it is or anything, hopefully it’s just a little one,” she says in the video. “... Lot of debris, pretty scary.”
The tornado damaged several homes, destroyed a two-story house in a Longwood subdivision and numerous snapped oak trees.
News 6 Chief Meteorologist Candace Campos said one of the concerns with a tornado threat is if it’s tied with torrential downpours, pointing out in the video that “you never saw a tornado coming.”
“Sometimes you don’t even see the threat coming until it just completely reduces your visibility,” she said.
She also said tornadoes of this magnitude are very rare in Central Florida. Typically, we see tornadoes ranging from EF-0 to EF-1.
According to a NWS damage survey, the tornado crossed over I-4 before it dissipated.
Monday’s tornado was the strongest to hit Seminole County since an EF-3 on Feb. 23, 1998.