Milton is no longer a tropical system, having transitioned to a post-tropical storm. The National Hurricane Center has issued it's final advisory for Milton as it continues to move east, into the Atlantic, and south of Bermuda.
Milton made landfall on Florida's western Gulf Coast tonight, in Siesta Key, Florida, making it Florida's third landfalling hurricane this season. Hurricane Milton comes just a few weeks after Category 4 Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend, and after Hurricane Debby back in August.
This hurricane has brought destructive winds, life-threatening storm surge, and flooding rain to Florida. Every single wobble or shift to the west or east Milton was crucial to who saw worst of the storm surge and winds.
The flooding is especially an issue since Florida already has saturated soils from rain earlier this week. Some storm surge projections suggest that Milton could break storm surge records set by Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago.
MILTONS DAMAGE
TORNADO REPORTS
Milton has produced over 120 tornado warnings in Florida, over 30 confirmed tornadoes. This the most tornado warnings ever issued in the state of Florida in one day & some of these tornadoes were very large and devastating bringing extensive damages to areas like Ft. Meyers and the areas on the east coast of Florida.
FLOODING RAIN
Milton brought extreme flooding rains to portions of the Tampa Bay area. Some areas saw anywhere from 10-15 inches of rain within 24 hours. Last night, a flash flood emergency was issued for Tampa Bay due to the intense flooding portions of the city saw, and reports of water waist high in a hotel in Pant City.
Numbers like this have been seen not only in the Tampa Bay area, but over to Orlando and the east coast of Florida.
WIND GUSTS
Milton came onto shore as a major category 3 hurricane bringing extensive wind damage to portions of the west coast of Florida and throughout the peninsula as it trekked its way to the east coast.
Wind gust reports were anywhere from 80 to over 100mph in areas closer to the eye. Even as Milton started to weak and move closer to the east coast, areas like Daytona Beach saw gusts close to 90 mph and even down in areas of South Florida saw gusts over 60 mph. The roof of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, which was designed to withstand winds up to 110 mph, was ripped off as Milton tore through the city.
POWER OUTAGES
Currently there are 3.2 million people without power in Florida. This is up from 2.9 million customers from earlier this morning, and it will continue to rise as Milton pushes off the coast.
