ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Hurricane Milton made landfall at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday near Siesta Key, but the entire Tampa Bay region felt its impacts.
In St. Petersburg, the impacts were historic.
More than 17 inches of rainfall fell at Albert Whitted Airport on Wednesday. Between 8 p.m. and 8:53 p.m., a whopping 5.09 inches of rain fell.
That much rain has led to a 1-in-500-year flooding event for St. Petersburg. This means that every year, there is a 0.2% chance that this happens. And, it happened.
"This is an area that maybe isn't accustomed to seeing rainfall like this," Meteorologist Chris Vickers said. "It is all coming down so quickly. It is all coming down at two, three or four inches an hour."
There's now a flash flooding emergency in place for Pinellas County until 4 a.m. Thursday.
Hurricane Milton came on the scene on Saturday as a tropical storm. Early Monday morning, Milton kicked off a rapid intensification starting as a Category 2 storm. It waffled between Category 4 and 5 strength on Tuesday before weakening to a Category 3 on Wednesday.
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