A Very Tornadic Florida Winter Continues

A tornado dropped one car atop another
in a community college parking lot
in Coconut Creek Florida Wednesday 

There's been a LOT of tornadoes in Florida this winter as El Nino-driven storms have made conditions ripe for twisters in the erstwhile Sunshine State.

Yet another nasty one touched down yesterday in Coconut Creek, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale.

The EF1 tornado flipped cars on a highway and in a college parking lot, ripped the roof off a condominium and caused other damage, NBC Miami reports.

Luckily, only one relatively minor injury was reported in this storm, as opposed to another tornado that killed two people east of Sarasota about 10 days ago.  

I'm pleasantly surprised there weren't more injuries in Wednesday's twister, since it happened in a populated area and did some scary things. Like picking up a car traveling on the southbound lane of the Florida Turnpike and dropping it back down on the northbound lane, says NBC Miami.

El Nino in winter tends to sharpen up the jet stream and send strong storms rolling along the far southern tier of states in the United States. That puts Florida in the cross hairs.

It's certainly not the best winter to enjoy Florida's warm sunshine. Yeah, it's warm, but it's a little scary and difficult to enjoy the beaches when severe storm warnings are blaring.

In addition to the tornadoes, the storms are causing high winds, destructive tides, and especially heavy rain in Florida.  Miami had its wettest December on record. (And Florida also had its warmest December on record, too.)

Along with the severe weather Wednesday, torrential rains hit. West Palm Beach had 4.79 inches of rain yesterday, with a total of over nine inches this January.

It's raining hard in Florida today, and flood watches are now posted. There's also a chance of severe weather and perhaps another isolated tornado today.

Next week, a large new storm threatens more severe weather and tornadoes in parts of the South, including Florida.

Following are a couple videos of the tornado that are pretty damn dramatic.

Here's a video taken at a home in Coconut Creek, Florida, yesterday. It appears to be right on the edge of the tornado. You can see debris flying through the air in the background. Luckily, the guy taking the video wasn't hurt, and his property didn't suffer too much damage:



Here's the tornado crossing the Florida Turnpike. It's hard to see with all the wind and rain, but watch the black car pass the viewer on the right. That's the one you'll see that gets picked up from the southbound lane and tossed to the northbound. REALLY scary: