Live webcams show Hurricane Milton making landfall near Tampa

Hurricane Milton hit the Florida coast around 8:30 p.m. ET, and a series of webcams from the coast captured the increasing storm surges and extreme weather conditions.

The Category 3 hurricane hit near Siesta Key, about 70 miles south of Tampa, although the storm-battered state began to feel its effects much earlier in the day.

More than 17 million people were under a tornado watch, and the National Weather Service in Miami said on social media that there were “up to four visually confirmed tornadoes” on Wednesday, adding additional unofficial reports.

“Historic, catastrophic, life-threatening – all of those words sum up the situation,” said Austen Flannery, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tampa.

After making landfall in Florida on Wednesday evening, the storm’s center is expected to move into the Atlantic Ocean off Florida’s east coast on Thursday, the center said.

Check out USA TODAY’s coverage of Hurricane Milton

View from Hilton Clearwater Beach in Clearwater, Florida.

The Isles of Collier Reserve in Naples, Florida.

Live path tracker video of Hurricane Milton as Florida prepares for Category 4 landfall

Hurricane Milton Tracker

Hurricane Milton spaghetti models update the map

The figures cover a range of forecasting tools and models, and not all are created equal. The hurricane center only uses the four or five best-performing models in its forecasts.

This story has been updated with new information

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a featured news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.