Several powerful tornadoes ripped through Florida hours before Hurricane Milton made landfall on Wednesday, ripping off roofs, overturning vehicles and sucking debris into the air as the black V-shaped columns passed through.

Deaths were reported in St. Lucie County on Florida’s Atlantic coast, but local authorities did not say how many residents were killed.

As of Wednesday evening, more than 130 tornado warnings related to Milton had been issued by the National Weather Service offices in Florida.

The occurrence of tornadoes before and during hurricanes is not unusual, scientists say, but the ferocity of the hurricanes is.

“It’s definitely unusual,” said Victor Gensini, a meteorology professor at Northern Illinois University. “Hurricanes do produce tornadoes, but they are usually weak. What we saw today was much closer to what we see in the spring in the Great Plains.”

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, tornadoes caused by hurricanes and tropical storms most often occur in the storm’s right front quadrant, but can sometimes occur near the storm’s eyewall. The heat and moisture present in the atmosphere during such storms, as well as changes in wind direction or speed with height, known as wind shear, contribute to their likelihood.

“There is an incredible amount of turbulence,” Gensini said of the conditions that allowed the twisters to grow. “These tornadoes were just in a very favorable environment.”

Warming oceans caused by climate change are increasing the intensity of hurricanes, but Gensini said he knows of no connection between human-caused warming and the deadly tornadoes Florida residents experienced with Milton.

About 12.6 million people in the state were at potential risk due to a tornado warning from the National Weather Service that was in effect through Wednesday evening.

Videos posted on Reddit and other social media sites showed large funnel clouds over neighborhoods in Palm Beach County and elsewhere in the state.

Luke Culver, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami, said he wasn’t sure whether Milton spawned a record number of tornadoes, but pointed out that only 64 tornado warnings for Florida were related to Hurricane Ian, which hit Tampa Bay hit the area as a massive storm in 2022.

Florida has more tornadoes per square mile than any other state. But they are usually not as severe as in the Midwest and Plains. However, in February 1998, a major outbreak of powerful hurricanes killed 42 people and injured more than 260 in central Florida within a few hours.

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