Tornado Hits Florida’s Capital City; Damages, Closes Airport

January 29, 2021

A tornado touched down near the airport in Florida’s capital city Wednesday, flipping at least one small plane over and knocking out weather radar before moving east into residential neighborhoods, the National Weather Service said. A few thousand were without power.

The city of Tallahassee tweeted photos at Tallahassee International Airport showing the flipped plane and a damaged hangar. Officials closed the airport to assess damage but reopened one runway more than two hours later, according to the airport’s Twitter account. The other runway remained closed to allow workers to remove debris.

There were no reported injuries at the facility.

Photo Credit: City of Tallahassee

A few thousand customers were without power, according to the city.

The tornado also caused damage in the city’s Southwood community, where several state offices are located, as well as in scattered neighborhoods south of downtown, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jasmine Montgomery.

Weather radar at the airport was still intermittent as the storm moved to counties east of Tallahassee, but Montgomery said the weather service had other radar available to keep watch on the system.

Topics Florida Catastrophe Natural Disasters Windstorm Aviation

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