Calls poured in to 911 dispatchers in Allendale, South Carolina, after what the National Weather Service said was a large and extremely dangerous tornado passed over the area around 4 p.m.
A tornado emergency was declared for the city, located about 73 miles south of Columbia. Damage is still being assessed. “We have downed power lines that are blocking several roads we have a couple of cars get hit by trees and I know there is at least one roof that has been removed from someone’s house,” Allendale County Emergency Management Director Kara Troy told The Weather Channel.
The tornado was just one of several reports of storms today as the latest siege of severe weather marches across the South, knocking down trees and power lines, flipping over cars, and causing other damage. The weather turned deadly early this morning in East Texas, where one person was killed in the town of Whitehouse.
A rare hailstorm blasted parts of South Florida Monday, coating the ground in white chunks of ice. Pings from the hailstones, which ranged from nuisance pea-sized hail to hail the size of golf balls, drew the attention of Floridians who live as far south as Miami.
The large hail caused significant damage to property in parts of Highlands County, which is to the north of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Photos on social media showed car windows with holes punctured by the hail, with the stones also causing roof damage to area homes.
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Storm spotters reported hailstones as large as 2 inches in diameter, about equivalent to the size of a lime. Hail and gusty winds were also reported as far south as Miami. Hail is generally rare across the Sunshine State, but especially as far to the south as it was observed Monday and over the weekend because the freezing layer of the atmosphere is higher up than in hail-laden places like the Great Plains.
“Large hail is rare in Florida because the atmosphere is too warm for it to form,” said AccuWeather Meteorologist and Senior Weather Editor Jesse Ferrell.
