Multiple tornado touchdowns were reported as South Florida was under sporadic tornado warnings on Wednesday ahead of Hurricane Milton.
There were two tornado touchdowns in Broward west of U.S. 27 and north of Alligator Alley moving north earlier in the day as Milton's outer bands moved through.
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Ines Vegas, who lives on the 18th floor of an apartment building facing west, saw a tornado from her balcony.
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"Impressive to see it that close," she said in Spanish.
Drivers on Alligator Alley and at the Everglades Toll Plaza also spotted the tornado.
Preliminarily, there may have been another tornado in Collier County and another in Palm Beach.
Local
As of 6 p.m., the National Weather Service in Miami had issued 55 tornado warnings, and at least 9 tornadoes had been confirmed in the NWS Miami area.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis later said there had been 116 tornado warnings and 19 touchdowns.
See the latest watches and warnings on our live blog here.
In the event of a tornado warning:
- The National Weather Service urges residents to take cover.
- Move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building.
- Avoid windows.
- If you are outdoors, in a mobile home, or in a vehicle, move to the closest substantial shelter and protect yourself from flying debris.
Why hurricanes increase the threat of tornadoes
Hurricanes are most known for the wind, surge and rain threats that come with them. But there is another very common threat that arrives in the outer rain bands–tornadoes.
Tornadoes are typically found on the eastern side of the hurricane, and in fact it is known as the strongest side, or "dirty" side, of the system.
In South Florida, it is common to see waterspouts, but tropical tornadoes are formed with the elevated wind shear that comes as the outer band, known as squall lines, move onshore.
The outer bands shoot off and away from the center of circulation, and they are moving quickly. As they move onshore, the wind at the surface begins to slow down. But higher in the atmosphere, the wind remains strong.
This contrast is known as wind shear – a change in wind speed (or direction) at different heights in the sky. This will create quick, but frequent, spin-up tornadoes.
The change in direction comes as there is a natural counterclockwise spin from the hurricane itself, but the outer bands are moving away from the center, causing a slightly different direction of those winds.
These are typically very short-lived and weak compared to the large supercell tornadoes that come from single rotating thunderstorms.
