Hurricane Milton

Submission 593

Overview

Hurricane Milton refers to an Atlantic hurricane set to make landfall over Florida's west coast on October 9th, 2024. Milton received nationwide news coverage when it experienced rapid intensification, transforming from a Category 1 to a Category 5 hurricane in a day over Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. Meteorologists identified Hurricane Milton as the fourth strongest Atlantic hurricane in recorded history. Milton formed a week after Hurricane Helene, which devasted nearby North Carolina and other places along its path. Viral posts and reactions to Hurricane Milton spread on social media sites like Twitter / X, Reddit and TikTok, among others. Viral videos surfaced en masse, like one showing Milton's powerful eye and another showing Florida meteorologist John Morales becoming emotional and seemingly crying while talking about Milton's strength. Others joked about the name "Milton," which was perceived as wimpy and unserious. Some made memes involving characters named Milton from fiction, like Milton Waddams from the film Office Space centering on jokes about his red stapler.

Background

On October 5th, 2024, the National Hurricane Center in Miami identified a storm system in the Gulf of Mexico that formed into Tropical Strom Milton. The experts at the time said that it could escalate to a hurricane by the end of the week and that it'd hit Florida's west coast. FEMA urged residents to prepare for the tropical storm.^[1]^[2]

In less than 24 hours between October 6th and October 7th, Tropical Strom Milton transformed into a Category 5 hurricane over Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, effectively being renamed Hurricane Milton by experts. On that day, Milton's wind speed was recorded at 180 mph.

"Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida," John Cangialosi, an NHC senior hurricane specialist, told the Orlando Sentinel. Milton was set to make landfall on October 9th with the eye of the storm projected to pass over the major city of Tampa Bay.^[3]

Online Reactions

On October 5th, 2024, viral posts about Hurricane Milton surfaced across social media after it was elevated to hurricane status and was projected to strike Florida as a Category 3. For instance, on October 5th, X^[4] user @rawsalerts tweeted about the hurricane, receiving over 1.1 million views and 13,000 likes in three days.

Memes and humorous posts about Milton began surfacing as word continued to spread, like one tweet shared by X^[5] user @FrizkFur on October 6th, who wrote, "I am NOT dying to a hurricane named 'MILTON' bro 🙏🙏😭😭," gaining over 155,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Florida resident and X^[6] user @TONYxTWO posted a video on October 6th in his Tampa neighborhood showing the debris from then-recent Hurricane Helene still piled on the side of the road after being cleared from the street and people's yards. @TONYxTWO was worried about Milton and said that it was the first hurricane he had ever evacuated from. The post received over 358,800 views and 12,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Viral posts about Milton also surfaced on Reddit, like on October 5th, 2024, when Redditor^[7] 5xad0w shared a CNN article about Milton to /r/news, receiving over 20,000 upvotes in three days. Top commenters on the post were worried about Milton's storm surge and trees being uprooted.

On October 7th, a tweet screenshot was reposted to /r/Damnthatsinteresting by Redditor^[8] Kanute3333, originally posted by Florida meteorologist Noah Bergren to X,^[9] where it received over 200,000 likes in a day. On /r/Damnthatsinteresting, the tweet received over 144,000 upvotes over the same timeframe (shown below).

Memes also surfaced on Reddit about Milton, like a "You Guys Are Still Alive?" meme posted by Redditor^[10] PR0CR45T184T0R to /r/dankmemes on October 7th, receiving over 5,300 upvotes in a day (shown below).

Meteorologist Crying While Discussing Hurricane Milton

On October 7th, 2024, X^[11] user @ChrisHushNBC tweeted a clip of NBC 6 South Florida meteorologist John Morales becoming emotional and seemingly crying while discussing the strength of Hurricane Milton, receiving over 3.7 million views and 10,000 likes in a day (shown below).

➡️ NOW: An emotional hurricane #Milton update from JohnMoralesTV</a> as the storm hits Cat. 5 status. <br><br>Take this seriously. <br><br>We have you covered here on <a href="https://twitter.com/nbc6?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">nbc6 pic.twitter.com/QEe3E25JGX

— CHRIS HUSH (@ChrisHushNBC) October 7, 2024

Others used the video memetically because it seemed to forbode Milton's devastation. For instance, on October 7th, X^[12] user @KristyT reposted the video, captioning it, "A meteorologist is crying…." receiving over 119,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Conspiracy Theories

Following the destruction of Hurricane Helene and in the days prior to Hurricane Milton's landfall, conspiracy theories about the government, specifically Democrats, controlling the weather surfaced in viral posts shared to social media.

For instance, on October 6th, 2024, X^[13] user @GrantCardone tweeted, I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico. Been watching storms since I was a young boy. I have NEVER seen a storm start here and go east." He asked further, "Do you think Gov’t is using technology to manipulate weather patterns & storms?" The tweet received over 40,000 likes in two days and also received a Community Note ^[14] aiming to debunk the tweet (shown below).

Others on X^[15] shared similar viral posts theorizing that the 2024 hurricanes were caused by the U.S. government to affect the results of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election (example shown below).

Others on X criticized the abovementioned posts and theories. For instance, on October 6th, X^[16] user @BMeiselas tweeted a screenshot of @GrantCardone's tweet,^[13] calling him and others echoing his claim crazy MAGA supporters, receiving over 18,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Developments

Governor DeSantis Ignoring Kamala Harris' Phone Calls Drama

On October 7th, 2024, X^[17] user @Acyn tweeted a video from MSNBC's news coverage, showing an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, who said that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was ignoring her phone calls. President Joe Biden's administration wanted to relay hurricane and disaster info to DeSantis and Harris believed that he wasn't taking her calls because he was "playing political games" (shown below).

Reporter: There are reports that DeSantis is ignoring your calls..Kamala Harris: Playing political games at this moment…It's utterly irresponsible and it is selfish and it is about political gamesmanship instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do pic.twitter.com/lySDD98xO9

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 7, 2024

Governor DeSantis later responded to VP Harris' claims on Fox News, stating that he had been in contact with FEMA and President Biden regarding Hurricane Milton. The clip was posted by X^[18] user @bennyjohnson on October 7th (shown below).

🚨WOW: Gov. DeSantis NUKES Kamala after she FREAKED today & attacked him for ignoring her phone calls:“She’s delusional. She has no role here. She’s been VP for 3 years and never contributed anything to these storm efforts. She politicizing the storm to save a failing campaign” pic.twitter.com/GZQ5gGSThI

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 8, 2024