Fox35
Most meteorologists employed by a local news station usually cover severe weather from the comfort of their studio. However, things took a scary turn when Brooks Garner was covering a tornado that swept through the Orlando area on Monday and struck the building he was broadcasting from as he was tracking it.
You may be surprised to learn Florida was sixth on the list of the states that recorded the most tornadoes in 2024 (ahead of Kansas and Oklahoma, both of which are firmly located in the region known as “Tornado Alley”). A good chunk of them touched down during hurricane season, but there were still plenty of others that fell outside of that particular window.
On Monday morning, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for counties around central Florida due to a severe storm that descended upon the region—including Orange County, which is home to Orlando as well as the suburb of Lake Mary where Fox35 is headquartered.
Fox35 meteorologist Brooks Garner quickly rose to the occasion by providing viewers in the area with updates on the storm with the help of a number of cameras chronicling the windy and rainy conditions outdoors—including one located on the roof of the news station that provided him with a glimpse of I-4.
Garner had his eyes on that angle when he realized it had captured the tornado he was covering making its way toward the building he was standing inside, and he remained impressively unfazed while warning his colleagues to get under their desks when debris began to hit the station as he continued offering updates.
Garner was understandably a bit shaken by the unprecedented situation he was nonetheless able to power through and noted “That’s the first time a tornado has hit me while I’m doing the weather.”
The roof camera that captured the tornado’s arrival was damaged, but it appears everyone inside the building made it through the ordeal unscathed.