3 Million Without Power After Milton Spurs Record Number of Tornadoes

Hurricane Milton swept off Florida’s east coast early this morning, having made landfall last night just south of Tampa – near Sarasota. The storm packed quite a punch, with intense winds, power outages affecting over three million people, and a significant number of tornadoes touching down across the state.

In St. Lucie County, officials confirmed that at least four lives were tragically lost due to the tornadoes triggered by Milton on Wednesday.

Siesta Key, Sarasota, and St. Petersburg all experienced wind gusts of up to 102 mph, but the strongest gust, at 107 mph, was recorded in Venice – just south of Sarasota. 

West Palm Beach saw gusts up to 92 mph, likely related to a nearby tornado, while Daytona Beach felt an 84-mph gust around 3:30 in the morning. Even though many people fled to Orlando, the airport felt the storm’s power, recording a 74-mph gust just before midnight.

Milton was an unusual storm for October. The trouble with it was that upper-level winds widened it right before it made landfall. While that meant more people were impacted by it, it also considerably weakened the storm.