A Florida meteorologist reporting on a tornado warning was interrupted on air when that twister hit his studio.
WOFL-TV meteorologist Brooks Garner was showing his Orlando-area viewers footage of what he believed to be a funnel moving outside his building when that tornado literally landed on top of his office.
“Get to your safe space under your desk,” he then instructed colleagues as debris blew across the building’s rooftop.
The power flickered as the storm, which appeared to be relatively weak, passed over Garner and his coworkers.
”This is a very serious situation,” he told his audience watching at home. “This is a real live tornado.”
After about 90 seconds the tornado was gone. Garner said that in his roughly 25 years in the weather business, being hit by a “confirmed tornado” was a new experience.
“That’s a first,” he said.
Garner assured viewers the people in his fortified studio were in the clear, but warned others to seek shelter and stay away from windows. He guessed winds were blowing at 75 to 100 mph when it passed.
Garner marveled “it’s a very rare feat to be able to confirm affirmatively based on debris on camera” that a tornado was active in central Florida.
The Seminole County Fire Department posted photos of a home and trees damaged by the windstorm shortly before 10 a.m.