Awaiting daylight here in Tampa Bay. Out of power,at least half my county and apparently all of Tampa (work there). The storm passed about 3 am. |
and comes back in with a vengeance. |
Yes didn't I read that when water gets sucked out you had better freaking run? |
Did that happen yet or do folks need to be on heightened alert today so they don't get caught off guard? Wouldn't want anyone to go out thinking the worst had passed only to get swept out to sea. |
OP here. 3 million without power. Tampa Bay avoided the worst case scenario with a direct landfall, and its costly surge. Sarasota had 10 feet of surge. The biggest surprise of Milton was the unexpectedly intense, and indeed record-breaking, tornado outbreak across Florida. Milton crossed Florida and continued to have a multitude of supercells in advance of its path well out to sea. If the Florida landmass had been any wider, it would have been the largest tornado outbreak in American history (that record still lies with Alabama). |
That’s more of an issue for earthquakes and title waves. It does not come back in the same kind of death wave it will just be a surge potentially but not guaranteed. |
Tidal, Siri. |
I saw a post that there was also severe lightning storm and outbreak, I don’t remember that being as much of an issue in hurricanes in the past? |
I’m from FL yes this is always an issue. Hurricanes spawn tornados. |
On top of the flood and debris, people have to watch our for alligators potentially lurking everywhere. |
This. I know it will be an uncomfortable conversation that will take decades, but we have to have it. And we won't be able to force people to move, but it will happen as a PP suggested - at some point, if you want to stay, you're on your own. This includes Florida, portions of Texas, California, the southwest (water access), and other areas in the coming years. |
OP here. Modern hurricanes are different than the ones 50 years ago, due to climate change. The biggest change is that now they are frequently subject to Rapid Intensification (RI), and can go, like Milton did, from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane in 24 hours. This is due to increasingly warm ocean waters. Water temperature is the fuel of hurricanes, and its increase raises the ceiling of what a hurricane can physically do and what is mathematically possible in terms of high wind speed and low barometric pressure. Milton's tornado outbreak and Helene's rain output were extremely intense. Tornadoes and extreme rain have always been a feature of hurricanes, but not at this level. We believe they are also intensified by more violent hurricanes. One thing to note is that both tornadoes and extreme rain can affect inland communities far from the point of landfall, so these are not just coastal concerns. From a point of view of coast and inland preparedness, and threat to life and property, all this is extremely bad news. Governments need to step in and make decisions for coastal communities affected by climate change, and for all inland topographies subject to flooding and flash flooding: this should include building moratoriums and flood insurance restrictions in certain areas. |
So is it safe to say this storm wasn’t as catastrophic as they were expecting? I’m not trying to minimize the impact by any means, but the news yesterday was calling it a one in a century event. Did we get a better case scenario? |
+1 It doesn’t sound like the surge was anywhere close to expected (thank goodness). I wonder why the forecast was so off. |
This is only true for oceans. Look it up. |