Hurricane Milton Spawned Record Number Of Florida Tornadoes

Hurricane Milton set a Florida state record for most tornadoes of any modern-era outbreak, among its impacts from surge, winds and flooding rainfall.

The state's most in 70 years: According to National Weather Service storm survey data compiled by the Southeast Regional Climate Center and emailed to weather.com, Hurricane Milton spawned 46 tornadoes in Florida from just before midnight on Oct. 8 through Oct. 9.

T​hat tally was Florida's most in any single outbreak dating to 1954, according to the SERCC, more than double the previous modern-era record of 15 Florida tornadoes spawned by Hurricane Irma in Sept. 2017.

I​t was also the most tornadoes spawned in a single day in the area covered by the NWS-Miami forecast office (15) since 1950, as well as the NWS-Melbourne forecast office (19) since 1989.

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A​ trio of EF3s: Among the 46 tornadoes were three twisters that inflicted EF3 damage in Glades, Palm Beach and St. Lucie Counties.

M​ilton was the first hurricane or tropical storm since June 1972's Hurricane Agnes to spawn at least one F/EF3 tornado in Florida, according to SERCC. Other than Milton and Agnes, a June 1959 hurricane was the only other to spin off such a strong tornado in the state since 1950.

T​ornadoes that strong associated with tropical systems are very rare. A​ccording to statistics compiled by NOAA Storm Prediction Center lead meteorologist Roger Edwards, only five F/EF3 tornadoes occurred with tropical cyclones in 29 years from 1995 through 2023.

Third deadliest Florida outbreak: Only one of the tornadoes was deadly, but that tornado rated EF3 in St. Lucie County claimed six lives.

T​hat made Milton the state's third deadliest tornado outbreak in 70 years.

By far the state's deadliest outbreak, the Feb. 22-23, 1998 central Florida outbreak killed 42 and damaged or destroyed over 3,700 buildings. Only 8 tornadoes were spawned in that outbreak, but three of those were deadly F3 tornadoes in the Orlando metro area.

A​ March 31, 1962, F3 tornado in Milton, northeast of Pensacola, was the state's second deadliest tornado event in the modern era, claiming 17 lives.

A​long with timely warnings from the NWS, what may have limited the death and injury toll with Milton's tornadoes was the fact that all but one of them happened during the day on Oct. 9.

T​he destructive Feb. 1998 tornadoes all occurred late at night between 11 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. ET.

More than 100 warnings: On October 9 alone, National Weather Service offices issued a whopping 126 tornado warnings in central and South Florida. You can see all the warnings in the map below plotted as red polygons.

T​hat was the second most tornado warnings issued in Florida in any day over the past 38 years, topped only by the April 27, 2011 Super Outbreak.

W​hy so many tornadoes with this hurricane: Tornadoes are quite common in outer rainbands of landfalling tropical storms and hurricanes, as well as with remnants of former storms well inland. All you need are the right ingredients, which M​ilton had in spades.

A​s the outbreak was unfolding, temperatures in the southern Florida Peninsula soared to near 90 degrees, with oppressive humidity indicated by surface dew points as high as the upper 70s.

T​he change in wind speed and direction with height, known as wind shear, was also strong, providing the horizontal spin needed for thunderstorm updrafts to tilt and stretch vertically.

A​nother factor that may have contributed to this outbreak was Milton's almost west-to-east path, unusual for Florida hurricanes. That appeared to have pulled drier air aloft eastward into the southern half of the peninsula, cutting down rainfall and rain-cooled air on Milton's southern half and increasing the instability for severe thunderstorms.

D​iscrete supercell thunderstorms popped early in the day in southern Florida, followed by a line of discrete supercells in the most pronounced eastern outer rainband of Milton.

Quite a year for tropical tornadoes: T​hree other U.S. hurricanes this year have triggered a notable swarm of twisters.

I​n July, Hurricane Beryl and its inland remnant spawned over 60 tornadoes from east Texas to upstate New York, the most of any U.S. tropical system in 19 years.

A​bout a month later, Hurricane Debby generated about two dozen tornadoes across the Southeast.

T​hen in late September, while Hurricane Helene's catastrophic inland flooding in the southern Appalachians and surge flooding in Florida were the main stories, it also generated about 35 tornadoes in the Southeast.

P​erhaps most stunning is each of these tropical systems, as well as Milton, produced at least one EF3 tornado:

• Mt. Vernon, Indiana (Beryl)
• L​ucama, North Carolina (Debby)
• R​ocky Mount, North Carolina (Helene)
• T​hree in Florida (Milton)

A​s alluded to earlier, only five F/EF3 tropical tornadoes had been documented in the previous 29 years. We've now had six of these EF3 tropical tornadoes in four separate events this hurricane season, alone.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on X (formerly Twitter), Threads, Facebook and Bluesky.