5 reasons Hurricane Milton's tornado outbreak was historic

While the number of tornadoes from Hurricane Milton doesn't rank the hurricane in the top 5 tornado producers, there are reasons that Milton's tornadoes will go down in history.

One of the biggest stories from Hurricane Milton was its tornadoes, all of which occurred before landfall. Although some tornado records were broken and despite dozens of tornado reports, the storm didn't make it into the top ten hurricane-spawned tornado outbreaks in history, landing at number 11.

Tornadoes are common before and after hurricane landfalls. Earlier this season, Hurricane Beryl spawned 68 tornadoes from Texas to Canada. However, even that number is eclipsed by Hurricane Beulah in 1967, Rita in 2005, Frances in 2004, and Ivan, which dropped 118 tornadoes in nine states in 2004 after making landfall in Alabama.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued 126 tornado warnings in Florida on Wednesday, Oct. 9, a new state record. A total of 45 tornado reports were received during the storms, and the NWS had surveyed 46 tornadoes so far as of October 28, 2024.

That number places Milton at the 11th-largest tornado outbreak from a hurricane, tied with Gustav 2008 and Florence 2018. Even though the storm didn't crack the top 5, Milton's tornadoes are an important part of the storm's legacy. Here's what was so different about Milton's twisters.

Milton's tornadoes were unusually destructive

Most tornadoes from hurricanes are relatively weak, but the NWS has confirmed three EF3 tornadoes, rated on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, from Hurricane Milton so far. Hurricanes Beryl, Ivan, Frances and Rita each spawned only one EF3 twister each. Only one hurricane, Beulah, dropped more EF3s when it spawned eight tornadoes of that magnitude in Texas in 1967. No hurricane has ever caused an EF4 or EF5 tornado.

One tornado was particularly deadly

One of the EF3 tornadoes that moved from Fort Pierce to Vero Beach killed six people in the mobile home retirement community of Spanish Lakes near Port. St. Lucie, Florida. Many of the homes were destroyed.

That's more than any hurricane-spawned tornado on record. Only one hurricane has killed more people with tornadoes. In 2004, Hurricane Ivan had seven fatalities, four from one EF2 tornado near Blountstown, Florida. After two deadly tornadoes in Florida in May, Hurricane Milton has added to eight deaths so far this year in the state, tying with Oklahoma and Texas.

The tornadoes were easily visible

Because hurricanes contain so much rain, tornadoes during hurricanes are often wrapped in rain or clouds, making them difficult to see. Milton's tornadoes all occurred during daylight hours. The storms that dropped the tornadoes across Florida last Wednesday were similar to low-precipitation supercell thunderstorms one might see in Tornado Alley. Thanks to a dense network of traffic cameras, the Florida Department of Transportation caught at least three of the twisters on video.

Another EF3 tornado began near Wellington and then moved through the towns of Acreage, where it was recorded damaging a home, Palm Beach Gardens, and Jupiter Farms. The twister caused immense damage at Palm Beach Gardens. At Big Dog Ranch, which was actively trying to place lost dogs from Hurricane Helene, a video showed the tornado, and damage to trees and power lines.

All tornadoes preceded the hurricane, southeast of the storm's track

Hurricane Milton's tornadoes were mostly in South and eastern Florida, while the flooding and destructive winds were north of the track of the storm, with extreme storm surge on the west coast south of landfall.

While that location for tornadoes may sound odd, hurricanes typically feature severe storms to their east and south. Storms to the south of landfall normally occur over the Atlantic Ocean; Florida is the only state that has land that could be to the southeast of a hurricane's landfall. A storm passing through the panhandle or western Florida, as Milton did, is a worst-case scenario that spreads tornadoes across the state.

Tornadoes can occur before or after a hurricane, but none occurred after Milton's landfall because the hurricane moved northeast over Florida and then straight off the coast, leaving any deadly storms over the sea Wednesday night and Thursday.

Florida has never seen a tornado outbreak this big

The "Sunshine State" is not known for large tornado outbreaks. Florida had never experienced more than 22 tornadoes in one day until Hurricane Milton. That happened twice, once on April 23, 1997, and again during Tropical Storm Debby on June 24, 2012. Milton has more than doubled that number.

Counting preliminary reports from Milton, Florida has recorded 103 tornadoes this year, ranking it fourth in the continental U.S. behind Illinois, which has 125 tornadoes, Nebraska and Iowa, which are tied at 131, and Texas, which has 149.

Tracks of these twisters were unusually long

Tornadoes from hurricanes are typically short-lived, and Florida is not a state where long-track tornadoes typically occur.

The parent storm of one of the tornadoes moved from the Miccosukee Reservation in the Everglades, across I-75, over the western tip of Lake Okeechobee through Sarasota Colony, and dissipated near the Brighton Seminole Reservation. Initially, the NWS tracked this EF1 tornado for 70.8 miles, but it was later split into multiple tornado paths based on damage swaths.

If a 70.8-mile twister had gone into the record books, it would have been the fifth-longest on record in Florida, the longest tornado south of a line from Bradenton to Palm Bay, and the longest hurricane-spawned twister.

The longest of the new tornado tracks is 29.89 miles through the town of Ortona. The Palm Beach Gardens tornado also tracked for 28.95 miles. Those are still impressive path lengths; prior to Milton, only one hurricane-spawned tornado in recorded history tracked for more than 28 miles, a 53.4-mile twister in Louisiana from Hurricane Beryl in July 2024.

Another yet uncompleted tornado survey from Milton shows a possible track of 63 miles for a tornado that began in the eastern Everglades and moved north through Deer City and Six Mile Bend, ending over the east-central shore of Lake Okeechobee near Port Mayaca. The track has not yet been confirmed by the NWS, and the tornado remains unrated as of Oct.15.

After a very active May, the U.S. has had a very active season with 1,720 tornadoes reported so far, compared to the historical average of 1,355.

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