Milton formed as a tropical storm in the Bay of Campeche on Oct. 5, 2024, and quickly intensified into a hurricane on Sunday, Oct. 6, becoming the ninth hurricane of the 2024 season.

By the morning of Oct. 7, Milton was a Category 3 hurricane, the season's fourth major hurricane. Later that afternoon, it rapidly intensified into a Category 5 with maximum winds of 180 mph as it moved across the Gulf of Mexico, setting records before landfall.

Over the next two days, Milton fluctuated between a high-end Category 4 and a low-end Category 5. As it neared Florida's west coast, it interacted with a front and weakened to a Category 3.

Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane with 120 mph winds on the evening of Oct. 9 near Siesta Key, Florida. It weakened to a Category 2 shortly after landfall, then to a Category 1, and kept hurricane status as it crossed the Florida peninsula.

Milton was the fifth hurricane to make landfall on the Gulf Coast in 2024, joining Beryl, Debby, Francine and Helene. That ties 2005 and 2020 for the second-most Gulf hurricane landfalls in a single year, behind only 1886, when six made landfall.

A total of 126 tornado warnings were issued in Florida on Oct. 9, the second-most ever issued in a single day and the most ever in Florida or from a tropical system.

Here is an interactive map of tornado reports across Florida during Hurricane Milton. Zoom in and click the tornado icons for more information.

Below is a video of a tornado from South Florida on Oct. 9, 2024, hours before Milton made landfall.

As the storm came ashore, the winds were out of the northeast and pushed the water out of Tampa Bay.

Further south of landfall, winds pushed water from the Gulf inland, leading to dangerous storm surge of up to 5 to 10 feet above ground level.

Wind gusts on the west coast of Florida ranged from 70 mph to over 100 mph. Venice, Fla. just south of Siesta Key, reported a 107 mph gust. 

Rainfall totals exceeded 12 inches in some areas, with most of the rain falling in just a few hours. St. Petersburg saw nearly 19 inches, among the highest totals.

At St. Petersburg's Albert Whitted Airport, 5 inches fell in a single hour. With so much rain in such a short time, flooding along rivers and creeks continued for several days after landfall.

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