Hurricane Milton Roars Into Florida as a Category 3 Powerhouse
Alexis Thornton
Last weekHurricane Milton made landfall at 8:30 pm EDT as a major Category 3 storm. Milton came ashore near Siesta Key, Florida. Here is the latest on this devastating storm.
Hurricane Milton Comes Ashore as Category 3 Storm
After days of speculation by forecasters, Hurricane Milton did indeed weaken slightly just prior to landfall. However, its impacts were still catastrophic for a part of the Florida coastline that took a beating from Hurricane Helene less than two weeks earlier. Damaging storm surge, torrential rainfall, destructive winds, and tornadic activity all came in with Milton from the Gulf of Mexico. Maximum wind speeds were hovering around 120 mph during the time of landfall.
Prior to even making landfall, Milton had already knocked out power to over 500,000 customers in Florida. By midnight, there were well over one million people in the dark with numbers continuing to mount.
The storm nearly doubled in size from Tuesday to Wednesday, putting more people in the crosshairs. The city of Sarasota saw the backside of the storm hours after landfall. Much of the community was underwater in a matter of minutes when the water started rushing in.
A flash flood emergency was issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) for the Tampa area, calling it a "particularly dangerous situation" as the life-threatening flooding gripped the large metro area. The nearby suburb of St. Petersburg reported rainfall over over 16 inches in a period of just 24 hours. This amount is over seven times more than the historical average of rain for all of October.
The heavy rain continued to push through the state overnight, eventually reaching Orlando in the central part of the state before hitting the eastern coastline of the peninsula. The storm was still a Category 2 storm hours after landfall.
It is still to understand the full impacts of Milton as the data is still coming in. As of late Wednesday, a top gust of 107 mph was reported in Venice. The mouth of Tampa Bay recorded a gust of 105 mph while Sarasota Bradenton International Airport reported winds that hit 102 mph. Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, home of the Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball team, lost its roof as a result of the high winds.