Tornado rips through Fort Lauderdale as storms march across Florida

Tornado rips apart boats, power lines in South Florida

A thunderstorm produced a tornado in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday. Damage and power outages were reported from the twister, but there appeared to be no injuries, authorities said.

A tornado hit Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Saturday as a line of storms moved across the Sunshine State.

According to a storm report from the National Weather Service office in Miami, officials received multiple phone calls and social media reports of a twister near Federal Highway about 5:50 p.m. ET. The NWS issued a Tornado Warning for the storm about 5 minutes before the cyclone was reported.

Fort Lauderdale officials said in a Facebook post that no injuries have been reported, and the damage from the storm appears to be minor.

An NWS team is expected to conduct a damage survey on Sunday to determine the strength of the tornado.

Funnel cloud in Fort Lauderdale as NWS issues tornado warning

A funnel cloud formed in the sky over Fort Lauderdale as the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a tornado warning for the area on Saturday, January 6. (Credit: Credit: Max Elk via Storyful)

There have been several reports of other severe weather across Florida on Saturday, including funnel clouds, a water spout and damaging wind gusts. The highest thunderstorm wind gust that has been reported was 52 mph near Pine Island.

The storms are associated with a trailing cold front that is attached to a powerful nor’easter moving up the East Coast this weekend. The storm has created a mess of ice, snow and rain as it chugs through the mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

More severe weather is possible in Florida in the coming days as another powerful storm moves across the eastern half of the country.

Read more of this story from FOX Weather.

Severe Weather Florida