Watch this tornado fling a car in the air like a toy

Have you ever seen a car get flung up in the air during a tornado?

A video uploaded to Instagram by Daphne Nikolopoulos has shown the moment where a tornado in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida with estimated wind speeds of over 200 km/h caused cars to leave the ground and flip over.

Ms Nikolopoulos said there were “flashes of light when transformers blew out, trees falling around us, and cars being picked up like toys”, and described the situation as “pretty surreal”.

The National Weather Service (NWS) in the US classified this as an EF-2 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 130 mph (209 km/h). It only lasted for 20 minutes and travelled around 4 kilometres.

“A cell merger that began between the Turnpike and Interstate 95 in Palm Beach Gardens was able to take advantage of a favorable environment for tornadoes and spawn an EF2 tornado,” said the NWS in a report.

“The tornado began just east of Interstate 95 and moved northeast across A1A, passing just south of the Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center.”

“As it moved through the Sanctuary Cove community it turned more north-northeasterly crossing PGA Blvd near the intersection with US 1.”

“After a short trek up US 1, the tornado dissipated before reaching Juno Beach.”