Hurricane Milton caused serious damage across central Florida yesterday , making landfall as a family 3 storm near Sarasota that has killed at least five and leave over three million hoi polloi without power . But one of the most middle - catching , serious atmospheric condition events associated with the storm preceded its reaching : dozens of tornadoes that lop up across the Sunshine State yesterday afternoon .
twister are violently rotating column of aura that hold out from the bottom of a thunderstorm to the priming coat . The weather phenomenon are remarkably powerful and have the capacity to destruct building and hurl everything from lampposts to cars through the melodic line like projectiles .
Tornadoes often chance at the fringe of hurricanes , but for many , the sheer number of twister yesterday were a phantasmagoric preamble to a violent storm that would stop up dump calendar month ’ worth of rainwater over key Florida in just a twenty-four hour period . More than 125 tornado warnings were issued by National Weather Service post in central Florida , CNN reported , throw it the most warning ever issue in the state in one twenty-four hours and nearly double over the former record of 69 warning in a day , issue during Hurricane Irma in September 2017 .
A huge tornado near Interstate 75 in Florida.Photo: Florida Department of Transportation.
So what is the total tornado count so far , and why did Milton provide such fertile ground for the dangerous phenomenon ?
Hurricane Milton caused at least three dozen tornadoes—but probably more
For tornadoes to form — whether on the Great Plains or South Carolina , as they did during Hurricane Helenelast week — you demand a couple of factors .
“ We ’re looking for two canonic thing to materialize : You have to have electrical storm , and you have to have the correct winds , ” said Rich Thompson , Chief of Forecast Operations for the Storm Prediction Center , part of the National Centers of Environmental Prediction under NOAA ’s National Weather Service , in a telephone set call with Gizmodo .
At the Storm Prediction Center ’s headquarters in Norman , Oklahoma — smack dab in tornado alley — the winds are often sufficient for twister establishment , Thompson enjoin , but the region only gets affectionate and humid enough to digest thunderstorm in the springtime .
A family stands outside their home after a tornado ripped through Fort Myers, Florida. Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images
In Florida it ’s the opposition . The state is quick and humid all the time , but it lack wind shear . “ That ’s where the hurricane comes in , ” Thompson said . “ You get the increases in the wind visibility you would n’t have otherwise . ”
As of 8 p.m. ET yesterday , at least 116 crack cocaine admonition were issued and the state experienced 19 corroborate tornados , Governor Ron DeSantis said in a insistence conference last night — numbers which have since climb up . These crack mostly come about in the south of Orlando and were concentrate on the state ’s Atlantic slide , specially around Port Saint Lucie , the sixth - turgid city in Florida . CNN reportedthat the National Weather Service ’s former turn stood at 27 tornadoes across the state , and at least four deaths associated with some of those crack cocaine touching down .
“ It ’s arduous to really say what the numbers are , but our conservative version of it right now is 38 tornadoes , ” Thompson say , which is an estimate ground on an initial rough count of 45 twister . “ I think that number will in all likelihood go up , it ’s just how high is hard to say . ”
Thunderstorm cells wreak havoc on eastern Florida as Hurricane Milton makes landfall. Image: NOAA / CIRA
How did Hurricane Milton develop?
Like Hurricane Helene a week before , Hurricane Milton was the beneficiary ofhigher - than - median ocean temperaturesin the Gulf of Mexico , an already affectionate physical structure of body of water . These warm temperatures are fodder for hurricane , which tend to acquire when water system control surface temperature are 82 ° Fahrenheit ( 27.8 ° Celsius ) or higher .
“ Milton was a near - perfect case [ for tornado formation ] , especially for Florida , given its orientation course and timing . ”
Milton also profit from a lowly erect wind shear during its establishment , mean that there was n’t much difference in the speeding or direction of wind acting on Milton at different ALT . That aid the violent storm make vertically , churning from a class 1 hurricane into a Category 5 violent storm ( with wind exceeding 175 mi per hr , or 282 kilometers per hour ) in less than a day .
Hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 3 , meaning we may be in for some more large storms out of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean before all is said and done . Both NOAA and Colorado State University predicted a much busier - than - average hurricane season , meaning the wait numeral of named storms , hurricanes , and major hurricanes were gamy than 1991 to 2020 averages .
Hurricane Milton created “near-perfect” conditions for tornadoes
Thompson say that Milton ’s tornado frenzy came down to a — sorry in progression for the clumsy cliché — perfect stormof component .
For one , Hurricane Milton charted a passably nontraditional path as it chop-chop grew from a hurricane seedling in the westerly gulf to a Category 5 hurricane off Mexico ’s Yucatán Peninsula . Most hurricane hitting Florida originate in the Atlantic — to the E or sou'-east — but Milton set about from the southwest , having formed off far west in the gulf .
“ unremarkably we ’re talking about a few faint crack ” in the effect of a tropical cyclone , Thompson tell . But Milton ’s speedy elaboration meant that as the storm impinge on Florida , its outer spiral bands arrived over the state in the good afternoon . “ With a trivial bit of temperateness in between them , ” the thunderstorm bands were capable to ignite up even more than usual . immix with increase current of air , the atmospheric cocktail set up a tornado threat .
“ If you ’d had the same cause [ in the hurricane ] and we just offset it by 9 to 12 60 minutes , there are probably still some tornadoes , but it ’s tap down quite a bite from what we had , ” Thompson say .
But that ’s not all , Thompson said . To the due north of cardinal Florida , the atmosphere “ come to a weak head-on zone , ” a cloudy area with cooler temperatures and rain . A common formula for twister formation happen when storms come out from the south and interact with a frontal geographical zone , stimulate clump of crack .
“ Usually the more favorable area for tornadic storms in a hurricane is on the side of the violent storm where you ’re bring the warmest and the most moist breeze towards the terminal , ” Thompson said — basically the east or northeast side . The side of the storm that ’s less likely to cause thunderstorms — and therefore less likely to get twister — typically take in landfall first . But that was n’t the example with Milton .
With those north- or nor'-west - moving storms , the most likely twister menace is near or after landfall , Thompson added . In Milton the diametrical happen . The conditions well-disposed for crack cocaine formation — those electrical storm carried ashore by warm , moist gusts of winds — arrived from the west , before the hurricane itself made its eastbound marching music across the state .
So in sum : The tornadoes were a particularly bad compounding of a very unusual hurricane course , a speedy intensification and enlargement of that storm , and thetimingof the arrival of those hurricane - force winding and storm cloud over an area already warm up by daytime temperatures .
Okay, geez. What’s the good news?
There ’s not much to claw at here except that the storm has passed . We ’re not getting a Hurricane Harvey - esque stall - out over Tampa Bay or Port St. Lucie that cause Houston to flood in 2017 . There ’s no threat of tornadoes today — in fact , Thompson enounce , the “ carcase ” of the hurricane is root for cooler , drier area from its south side , which is why today is “ comparatively nice by Florida standards . ”
But should next storms hit Florida from the westward , alternatively of the south or east , you could expect a like sorting of rule to unfold – peculiarly if the storm approaches in the afternoon , and with the ocean temperatures as tender as they are these days .
FloridaHurricane Miltonhurricane seasonTornadoesTwisters
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