A powerful blast of thunderstorms rolled over South Florida on Sunday afternoon, with the strongest winds reaching the near-hurricane strength of over 70 mph in Palm Beach County, forecasters said.
One wind gust at Palm Beach International Airport reached 71 mph, said Larry Kelly, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Miami-South Florida forecast office.
“In Palm Beach County is where we’ve seen the strongest winds so far,” Kelly said just before 3:30 pm Sunday, adding that the strongest winds in Palm Beach measured between 50 and 70 mph between 1 p.m. and 1:45 p.m. In Broward he said, where the storms were still moving through, the strongest winds reached between 40 and 50 mph.
Category 1 hurricanes carry maximum sustained winds (gusts that are about a minute long) of at least 74 mph.
Frequent bursts of lightning, hail and heavy rain were also among the hazards. Kelly said the storms downed trees and produced hail measuring about an inch in diameter.
“It’s not unusual for this time of the year,” Kelly said. “This is the time of the year when we see severe storms and hail.”
Water spouts along the coastal waters were also a possibility, forecasters said.
A tweet posted by WPEC-CBS12 meteorologist Zach Covey showed a destroyed COVID-19 test site at the Veterans Administration hospital in Riviera Beach. Tents at the testing site at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches were knocked over.
Another tweet by Covey showed downed power lines near the 45th Street Tri-Rail station in Riviera Beach.
The storms moving in from the Gulf of Mexico and northeast over South Florida were expected to calm down by Sunday night.
The forecast for Monday through Wednesday calls for mostly sunny days with highs in the low to mid 80s.
