Tornado touched down in Pine Island, NWS says

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A tornado touched down on Pine Island, marking the second confirmed tornado to hit Southwest Florida in 2023.

The National Weather Service confirmed it happened Sunday at around 11:10 a.m., based on reports from Chief Meteorologist Matt Devitt and WINK Doppler 3x radar data.

This twister briefly touched down and destroyed a $150,000 freezer near Pine Island Center and Doug Taylor Circle.

“It’s kind of a shock to see, you know, a $150,000 freezer laying on the ground after it was completed and everything ready to go,” said Dan Mote, manager of Island Crab Company. “First, I looked at it, and I thought, ‘Well, surely just some wind couldn’t have knocked the thing down.’ I mean, it was a sturdy structure, and it was just… how did that happen? I was just kind of in shock at first, and I’m trying to figure out how it happened and why it happened.”

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