Due to what forecasters call a 'sting jet,' storm chasers saw howling winds in Punta Gorda after Hurricane Milton's landfall, leading to widespread power outages.
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00:00A fierce 102 mile-per-hour wind gust in Sarasota right now, Bernard.
00:03And strong winds on the southern side and with that, our team coverage continues right
00:08now with storm chaser Mike Scantlin live in Punta Corda on the southern side of Milton
00:14where the winds have really picked up here in the last hour and Mike, the last time we
00:20talked to you, the storm surge was increasing and so were the winds and it looks as though
00:24that continues.
00:29You're absolutely right.
00:30So, my last live shot, I was standing in the grass here in what was a field, there's like
00:34an empty lot here covered in grass, there's about three feet of water where I was standing
00:39earlier and we're in the hotel parking lot now, taking wind gusts over 90, dry wind gusts
00:46though, you'll notice I am bone dry right now, a dry half of the hurricane, still very
00:52potent, a lot less wind gusts without the precept of bringing the wind down to the surface
00:57but, you know, the gusts are sporadic but they are potent, we've had probably three
01:01or four over 90, we did have some power flashes here just to our south that knocked out power
01:06to the hotel and if Aaron can zoom in back here, across downtown Punta Corda, they have
01:12also lost power now but multiple feet of water moving through downtown Punta Corda right
01:18now, still transformers exploding in every direction here with those sporadic wind gusts
01:25here so, they are sporadic but they are potent and the surge is moving any quicker than it
01:31was since the last time we talked, I wouldn't be surprised if we had seven feet of surge
01:35at this point in time from the beginning of the storm.
01:39And Mike, I know you're looking at the camera but behind you, we are seeing lots of light
01:45flashes, there is no lightning right now anywhere as you mentioned, we were just looking at
01:50the radar that there is not much in the rain so those have to be power flashes, transformers
01:58blowing right now because of that wind.
02:00Absolutely, and I'm probably seeing well over 100 power flashes with this, that's one of
02:08the things that we use when the storm, whenever it's night time, we track the wind gusts coming,
02:14you can actually see them coming, the one that took out our power, we saw it coming
02:17with a sequence of power flashes moving in our direction and I can hear a big gust coming
02:23right now and I'm probably going to see all the power flashes behind me but the surge
02:28is still coming in and I think we probably saw the storm before shooting that storm.
02:34We're going to wrap you right now, we want you to be safe because there's powerful winds
02:39coming in, we're going to check back with you, get yourself in a safe spot as those
02:43winds are going to continue to howl.
02:46Alright, joining us right now with the latest, we have AccuWeather hurricane expert Alex
02:52Da Silva and Alex, you just saw the report of Mike Scatlin which is again, he is located
02:59in Punta Gorda, let's take a look at the radar, explain what's going on here with the winds,
03:05not much rain but a lot of strong winds, Alex.
03:09Yeah, we might be seeing what's called a sting jet on the southern side of the eyewall here
03:15where the winds can come down in kind of the drier portion of the eyewall there and
03:20so we're seeing some accelerating winds coming down across the southern area of that eyewall
03:25there so don't let the fact that there's no rain there fool you, there's going to be very,
03:29very, very strong winds on the side of this eyewall I think due to this sting jet what
03:34we call coming in to Florida there.