Hurricane Milton dropped 1-in-1,000-year levels of rain around Tampa Bay

Hurricane Milton dumped extremely heavy rain on Florida before and after it made landfall. In the Tampa Bay area, it qualified as a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall event.

Hurricane Milton dumped so much rain over parts of Florida’s Tampa Bay area that it qualified as a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall event.

St. Petersburg had 18.31 inches of rain — or more than 1.5 feet — in the 24-hour period during which the storm made landfall, according to precipitation data from the National Weather Service.

That included a staggering 5.09 inches in one hour, from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET — a level considered to have roughly a 0.1% chance of happening in any given year.

“THIS IS INSANE! St. Petersburg has reported 5.09 inches of rain in ONE HOUR and 9.04 inches in 3 hours,” Matthew Cappucci, an atmospheric scientist and senior meteorologist at MyRadar Weather, posted Wednesday on X. “That’s more rare than a thousand year rain event.”

Milton made landfall on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. ET near Siesta Key, as a strong Category 3 storm.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/hurricane-milton-rain-1-in-1000-year-event-rcna174838

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