Milton made landfall in Florida on Wednesday as an "extremely dangerous" Category 3 hurricane, packing life-threatening storm surge, extreme winds and flash flooding, the AFP quoting National Hurricane Center said.
"Data indicate the eye of Hurricane Milton has made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County along the west coast of Florida," the NHC said in an 8:30 pm (0030 GMT Thursday) bulletin.
The Guardian quoting CNN said that Milton is the fifth hurricane to make landfall in the US this year, more than from 2021 to 2023 combined.
Hurricane Milton has now knocked out power to more than 2 million Florida customers, according to utility tracker, The Guardian updated.
According to The Associated Press, the cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (205 kph) when it roared ashore near Siesta Key, Florida, at 8:30 p.m., the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. The storm was bringing deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.
Hurricane Milton spawns multiple tornadoes across Florida
Multiple tornadoes spawned by the hurricane tore across Florida, the twisters acting as a dangerous harbingers of Milton’s approach.
Three Florida offices of the National Weather Service in Miami, Tampa and Melbourne issued more than 130 tornado warnings associated with Hurricane Milton by Wednesday evening.
Videos posted to Reddit and other social media sites showed large funnel clouds over neighborhoods in Palm Beach County and elsewhere in the state.
Luke Culver, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami, said he wasn’t sure whether Milton had spawned a record number of tornados, but he pointed out that only 64 Florida tornado warnings were associated with Hurricane Ian, which hit the Tampa Bay area as a massive storm in 2022.
Tornadoes produced by hurricanes and tropical storms most often occur in the right-front quadrant of the storm, but sometimes they can also take place near the storm’s eyewall, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The heat and humidity present in the atmosphere during such storms and changes in wind direction or speed with height, known as wind shear, contribute to their likelihood.
- 'The other storm' -
Milton hit just two weeks after another major hurricane, Helene, hit Florida and other southeastern states with devastating and deadly effect.
"I am nervous. This is something we just went through with the other storm -- ground saturated, still recovering from that," Randy Prior, who owns a pool business, told AFP.
Prior, 36, says he plans to ride out the storm at home, after recently toughing out Hurricane Helene, which sparked flooding in Florida before wreaking havoc across remote areas further inland such as western North Carolina.
The Weather Channel reported "numerous tornadoes" touching down in central and southern Florida.
With the storm coming immediately after lethal Helene hit the US southeast, presidential candidate Donald Trump has sought political advantage by falsely saying aid is channeled away from residents, many of whom are supporters of his Republican Party, and toward migrants.
At the White House on Wednesday, President Joe Biden slammed the Republican former president and current candidate's "onslaught of lies."
"There's been a reckless, irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies," Biden said in angry remarks.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who is taking on Trump at the polls, echoed Biden's criticisms in a separate telephone interview with CNN.
"It is dangerous, it is unconscionable, frankly, that anyone who'd consider themselves a leader would mislead desperate people to the point that those desperate people would not receive the aid to which they are entitled," she said.
Across the southeastern United States, emergency workers are still struggling to provide relief after Helene, which killed at least 235 people.
Scientists say global warming has a role in intense storms as warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, providing additional energy for storms, which exacerbates their winds.
(With inputs from AFP and AP.)