FT. Pierce, Fla. (AP) – Dozens of tornadoes spawned by Hurricane Milton caught many Floridians by surprise. Violent tornadoes were seen crossing highways, tearing off roofs, and downing trees and power lines.
When Debbie Jones felt the pressure drop, her ears popped under the surrounding holiday pines. Pierce, she knew it was a tornado.
“Suddenly there was a power cut. I started to hear the wind pick up and the debris started to hit very loudly. So I just closed the hurricane shutters and got out of there,” Jones’ son Megan Brown said. The family barricades themselves with four dogs beyond the windows at the back of the house.
An apparent tornado from Hurricane Milton, Cape Coral, Fla., on Wednesday, October 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier) A 7-Eleven rips the awning off a convenience store.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center, Florida has had 38 preliminary eyewitness reports since Wednesday night. The state sees an average of 50 cyclones throughout the year. The confirmed number is expected to rise in the coming days as damaged sites are assessed.
“It’s certainly going to be a significant part of this storm, given how many hurricanes have occurred in such a short period of time,” said Matthew Elliott, warning coordination meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Center.
Officials said five hurricane-related deaths occurred at the Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce on Florida’s Atlantic coast. At a White House briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorgas said there were reports of 10 deaths from the hurricane, but he cautioned that the number was tentative.
The National Weather Service issued 126 tornado warnings in the state yesterday, according to eyewitness reports.
The frenzy of twisters was also an unusual feature of Milton.
“It’s definitely unusual,” said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gencini. “Hurricanes produce tornadoes, but they’re usually weak. What we saw today was very close to what we see in the Great Plains in the spring.
Conditions were particularly favorable for hurricane breeding. Hurricane Milton spent the day at sea creating the perfect environment with the heat of the sun and instability in the atmosphere.
Hurricanes and tornadoes formed by tropical storms often occur in the storm’s right-front quadrant, but they can sometimes occur near the storm’s eyewall, according to NOAA. During such storms, the heat and moisture present in the atmosphere and changes in wind direction or speed with height, known as wind shear, contribute to their potential.
“There’s an incredible amount of spinning going on,” Gencini said of the conditions that allowed the twisters to develop. “That hurricane was in a very favorable environment.”
Earlier this year, Hurricane Beryl produced 65 confirmed tornadoes in several states. In 2004, Ivan had 118 tornadoes. The difference is that all hurricanes from Milton take more than eight to 10 hours to land in Florida.
It can be complicated to tease out damage from Hurricane Milton in particular, but scientists say it’s important to keep accurate records of hurricanes.
Cyclone activity can be divided into three seasons: spring, tropical cyclone season, and late fall and winter. “It really shows that hurricanes can be a significant part of a tropical cyclone, in this case, a category three hurricane,” Elliott said.
Warming oceans from climate change are making hurricanes more intense, but Gencini said he knows of no connection between human-caused warming and the deadly hurricanes Floridians experienced with Milton.
Florida has more hurricanes per square mile than any other state. But they are generally not as severe as in the Midwest and the Plains. However, in February 1998, a large burst of powerful twisters killed 42 people and injured more than 260 in central Florida in the space of a few hours.
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Matat report from Ft. Pierce, O’Malley from Philadelphia and Naishatham from Washington, DC
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