A powerful storm that rolled through Baldwin County Wednesday night tossed outdoor furniture, flung a dumpster into a nearby field and knocked a swing set clean over a fence at a popular Fairhope ice cream shop, according to surveillance footage captured at the scene.
Cammie's Old Dutch Ice Cream Shoppe, located off County Road 24 in Fairhope, was largely spared serious damage even as the storm tore through the surrounding property. Store manager Desirae Walters was inside when the weather turned violent.
"It just sounded like a really loud boom, and then you could hear the howling of the wind in the rain, and then it started swishing around," Walters said.
Walters said she and her coworkers sheltered inside for roughly 25 to 30 minutes as the storm seemed to hover over the area longer than expected.
"We were inside with this storm a good 25, 30 minutes because it just seemed like it lingered over us for a little while," she said. "And then, once we walked outside, we were like, 'Oh, okay, well, that's pretty rough.'"
Swing Set, Pergola Thrown Across the Property
Surveillance video from the shop shows a swing set standing normally one moment, then vanishing in a sudden gust of wind and driving rain. A pergola that had been positioned near the swing set was also ripped from the ground and thrown into a neighboring field.
"Our dumpster was flung way back in the field, and we still have items that are flung in various farmers' fields around us," Walters said.
Winds Reached Roughly 50 MPH
Wind gusts in the area reached around 50 miles per hour during the storm, strong enough to split trees along nearby roadways. Despite the intensity of the wind, the ice cream shop itself came away with only minor damage to its roof.
"It looks like it just came through a line and just tore up on its way," Walters said. "And even with our damage, it looks like it just circled the building and tore stuff up around us and tossed it all, and then it was gone."
Downbursts and Straight-Line Winds
Concentrated blasts of damaging wind from a thunderstorm are known as downbursts, or microbursts when the damage path is less than about 2.5 miles wide. They form when rain-cooled air plunges out of a storm and spreads out at the ground, and the National Weather Service notes they can cause damage comparable to a weak tornado. When damage is significant, NWS meteorologists may survey the area to determine whether straight-line winds or a tornado was responsible.
