Tornado Updates

Days after deadly Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida as a Category 3 storm with over 100 mph winds, near-record storm surge and a historic tornado outbreak that left nearly 4 million without power, normalcy still eludes much of the state as recovery efforts continue.

Hurricane Milton is long gone, but the lingering effects from its torrential rains that measured over a foot in many areas are extending its impacts well into next week.

A cold front at the surface of the Earth and the jet stream aloft will prevent any tropical systems from moving into the northern Gulf or the Atlantic through next week, at least.

A potential tropical disturbance in the eastern Atlantic Ocean has a chance to develop into a tropical depression Saturday, according to the National Hurricane Center, just three days after Hurricane Milton tore through Florida, leaving more than a dozen dead.

The National Park Service says a significant stretch of the historic Blue Ridge Parkway has reopened in Virginia following damage from the remnants of Helene. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. A significant stretch of the roadway still remains closed from southwestern Virginia through western North Carolina.

A comet known as C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas will pass within 44 million of Earth on Saturday. According to astronomers, peak viewing of the event in the Northern Hemisphere will begin on October 13 and could last for a couple of weeks.

GasBuddy, a technology company specializing in crowd-sourced data on prices of gasoline, reports that at least 74% of gas stations around Tampa were without fuel on Friday. The outages have crept up since Milton made landfall near Sarasota on Wednesday.

Hurricane Milton’s 100-mph-plus wind gusts inside its powerful eyewall Wednesday evening was no match for Sarasota’s airport, which suffered severe damage.