This kind of damage isn’t something you see every day. One of the tornadoes that tore across Florida during Hurricane Milton’s landfall on Oct. 9 sliced through the heart of a solar farm, leaving behind an eerily distinct path in its wake.
PHOTOS: Major tornado outbreak as Hurricane Milton hits Florida
The EF-2 tornado touched down near Lake Placid, Florida, which is about 50 km northwest of Lake Okeechobee.
Most of the damage occurred in a nearby mobile home park, where survey crews with the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) found that 20 to 30 homes were seriously damaged by the twister’s estimated 210 km/h winds. One woman was injured when a wall in her bedroom collapsed.
Extensive solar panel damage after an EF-2 tornado in Lake Placid, Florida. (Duke Energy)
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After hitting the mobile home park, the tornado continued northwest toward Duke Energy’s Lake Placid Solar Power Plant. The facility could generate 45 megawatts of electricity, “which is enough to power more than 12,000 homes at peak production,” according to the company’s website.
The twister carved through the middle of the solar farm, destroying hundreds of panels along an unmistakable path through the centre of the facility. Aerial photos after the storm clearly revealed the extent of the damage.
WATCH: Tornado tears path through solar farm in Florida
The storm that hit Lake Placid produced one of at least 36 confirmed tornadoes that touched down across Florida during Hurricane Milton. Forecasters with the NWS issued more than 120 tornado warnings as the major hurricane’s outer bands whipped over the state.
Three of the tornadoes were rated violent EF-3s, with five more twisters producing significant EF-2 damage along their paths.
Tornadoes are common in landfalling tropical systems as thunderstorms in the outer bands tap into powerful wind shear throughout the atmosphere. Most tropical tornadoes are relatively weak and short-lived, but the environment can occasionally support strong tornadoes as we saw during Milton.
Hurricane Ivan holds the record for the largest tropical tornado outbreak on record. That storm in September 2004 produced around 118 twisters from Florida to Pennsylvania, killing numerous people and causing millions of dollars in damage.
Header image courtesy of Duke Energy.