‘Small Tornado’ Tore Through Pinellas County Mobile Home Park: NWS Tampa Bay

LARGO, FL — A tornado tore through Largo as a band of powerful thunderstorms moved across Pinellas County Wednesday evening, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service confirmed to Patch.

While NWS staff will be heading to the area Thursday morning to survey damage and determine the wind speed and size, it was “definitely a small tornado,” the meteorologist said.

The storm system produced heavy rain, lightning and even hail.

Significant storm damage was reported at the Ranchero Village and Bay Ranch Manufactured Home on the 7000 block of Ulmerton Road, the Largo Police Department wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday around 10 p.m.

Emergency crews responded to the scene and no injuries were reported, police said.

About 20 roofs were torn off structures in the mobile home park.

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“Houses are destroyed, and people are devastated just walking around, just in shock,” resident Tim Mudder told Bay News 9. “All of a sudden we just heard this really loud bang, and we jumped up and ran outside and everything was just blowing sideways and debris in the air and it looked like little pieces of paper, but it was roof and shingles…it was crazy!”

Pinellas Park police, fire department and public works crews also responded to neighborhoods impacted by the storm, Fox 13 said.

A spokesperson for the Pinellas Park Police Department told WFLA that the damage appeared to be limited to residential and commercial property in the Pinebrook neighborhood only.

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