Dr. Ryan Truchelut, of Tallahassee-based WeatherTiger, is tracking category 3 Hurricane Milton and offered up-to-the-minute meteorological insight and running analysis on the storm's catastrophic landfall in Sarasota and its punch through the Florida peninsula.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hurricane Milton brought powerful winds, a deadly storm surge and flooding to much of Florida after making landfall along the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm. It weakened to a Category 1 storm as it moved through Florida early Thursday. Power outages were widespread and deaths have been reported from severe weather.

Hurricane Milton will be a storm surge event unlike any hurricane in living memory for west-central Florida, said Dr. Ryan Truchelut.

Storm surge in Fort Myers could reach 6 to 10 feet. As Milton moves over Florida, winds ahead of the system could push storm surge up to 5 feet in Jacksonville and up to 4 feet in Savannah. Wind gusts could climb over 130 mph in the St. Petersburg area.

Milton was once a Category 5 storm and is impacting many areas that were hit by Hurricane Helene in late September

Hurricane Milton is bringing powerful winds, a storm surge and flooding to much of Florida after making landfall along the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm

As Hurricane Milton approaches Florida’s west coast, communities prepare for destructive storm surge and damaging winds.