Only days after explosively strengthening into the most intense Gulf hurricane in nearly two decades, the eye of Hurricane Milton crossed west-central Florida's coastline at Siesta Key near Sarasota - just 20 miles south of Tampa Bay - as a Category 3 hurricane with 120 mph winds around 830 p.m. local time Wednesday evening.
During the day on Wednesday, scores of warnings were issued for violent Midwest-style supercell tornadoes clear across Florida's east coast as the outer bands from Milton forewarned its looming landfall.
In total, the National Weather Service issued 126 tornado warnings across the state on Wednesday, the most ever issued in a 24-hour period for the state in records dating back to 1986.
It nearly doubled the number of tornado warnings issued on any previous calendar day for Florida - 69 tornado warnings issued during Hurricane Irma in 2017 - and was the most number of tornado warnings issued for any state in a single calendar day since the 134 tornado warnings issued in Alabama during the historic April 2011 Super Outbreak.
So far, nearly 40 tornadoes have been reported from yesterday's deadly outbreak, but those numbers will be revised in the days ahead as NWS damage assessment teams verify the strength and paths of yesterday's tornadoes.
