Hurricane Milton has left the state of Florida and that’s a big relief for everyone who lives in the Sunshine State. The aftermath coverage of the powerful storm, which was a Category 3 hurricane, is underway and that means digging into the data.
We reached out to the National Weather Service in Miami this morning. The NWS-Miami covers the Naples area in Collier County. Here’s what they told us:
Hurricane Milton storm surge levels
- Naples (Naples North Bay) Tidal Gauge reached a Mean Higher High Water (MHHW) of 5.08 feet Wednesday night (Oct. 9) during the peak of Hurricane Milton’s surge.
- This exceeds the value (4.02 feet) that was observed during Hurricane Helene two weeks ago as well as Hurricane Irma (4.25 feet).
- This is second highest on the list behind Hurricane Ian (6.18+ feet)* which had the gauge fail before the peak of the storm surge.
Hurricane Milton rainfall amounts
- Rainfall amounts – Less than 2″ during the duration of Milton’s passage. 6-8″ widespread over the last seven days with isolated locally higher amounts, much of which fell during the heavy rainfall event ahead of Milton.
Hurricane Milton wind gusts
- According to the NWS-Miami website, some of the highest wind gusts recorded in Collier County from 8 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 8 though Thursday, Oct. 10 were 59 mph at the Collier County Emergency Operations Center, 58 mph in Immokalee, and 56 mph at the Naples Zoo.
- See all wind gust measurements HERE.
Hurricane Milton tornado warnings/watches
- We cannot give you county-specific total, however 55 Tornado Warnings were issued for South Florida by NWS Miami and 126 Tornado Warnings were issued by NWS offices across all of South Florida yesterday.
- This was the most number of tornado warnings our office has issued in a single day, superseding the previous record of 49 during Hurricane Ian in 2022.
- As far as confirmed tornadoes, we are still in the process of setting up storm survey’s so we do not have a final number just yet. At this time we are aware of seven distinct storms that may have produced at least one tornado, perhaps multiple in a few cases. The Tornado Watch was issued at 8:23 a.m. on Oct. 9, 2024.
This story was updated to add a video.
Visited 4 times, 1 visit(s) today
