Hurricane Milton dumped a lot rain over components of Florida’s Tampa Bay space that it certified as a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall occasion.
St. Petersburg had 18.31 inches of rain — or greater than 1.5 toes — within the 24-hour interval throughout which the storm made landfall, in accordance to precipitation data from the National Weather Service.
That included a staggering 5.09 inches in a single hour, from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET — a degree thought-about to have roughly a 0.1% likelihood of occurring in any given year.
“THIS IS INSANE! St. Petersburg has reported 5.09 inches of rain in ONE HOUR and 9.04 inches in 3 hours,” Matthew Cappucci, an atmospheric scientist and senior meteorologist at MyRadar Weather, posted Wednesday on X. “That’s more rare than a thousand year rain event.”
Follow stay updates on the aftermath of Hurricane Milton
Milton made landfall on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. ET close to Siesta Key, as a robust Category 3 storm.
Other important rainfall totals throughout Florida included 14.01 inches in Clearwater Beach, 13.09 inches in Baskin, 11.43 inches in Tampa and 10.12 inches in Seminole.
It takes time to perceive the affect of local weather change on particular person climate occasions, so scientists haven't but been in a position to full analyses of its impact on Milton. But typically, specialists know that international warming is making storms wetter and extra intense.
Studies have proven that international warming is rising sea floor temperatures, which gives additional power for storms, permitting them to acquire velocity and depth. The unusually excessive sea floor temperatures within the Gulf of Mexico that helped each Hurricanes Milton and Helene strengthen had been 200 to 500 occasions extra possible as a result of of local weather change, in accordance to analysis launched Wednesday.
A hotter ambiance also can maintain extra water: For each diploma Fahrenheit that the planet heats up, the ambiance can maintain about 3% to 4% extra moisture. That makes storms succesful of dumping huge quantities of rain over land.
Milton’s driving rain alongside Florida’s Gulf Coast rapidly inundated roadways, houses and different constructions. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency for Tampa and St. Petersburg that lasted till 2:30 a.m. ET Thursday.
Forecasters had anticipated heavy rain as Milton barreled into Florida. In the hours earlier than landfall, the National Hurricane Center mentioned it anticipated 6 to 12 inches of rain throughout central and northern parts of the Florida Peninsula by way of Thursday, with localized totals up to 18 inches.
Even Florida's east coast has been hammered by rain. Preliminary measures on Wednesday indicated that 7 inches had fallen in St. Augustine, 7.38 inches in Titusville and three.05 inches in Daytona Beach, in accordance to the National Hurricane Center.
Hurricane Milton has moved again out to sea, however extra rainfall and flooding are anticipated to persist by way of Thursday in components of jap and central Florida, in accordance to the National Hurricane Center.
Kathryn Prociv and Joe Murphy contributed.
