In the hours before Hurricane Milton hit, forecasters were worried it could send as much as 15 feet (4.5 meters) of water rushing onto the heavily populated shores of Florida's Tampa Bay. Instead, several feet of water temporarily drained away.

The second option, called a "reverse" storm surge, can expose sand, silt, and debris typically covered by water. It is a strange phenomenon that occurs with the circular winds of a hurricane.

Water receded from the Tampa Bay shoreline as Hurricane Milton approached Florida’s Gulf Coast because of a phenomenon called “reverse storm surge.”

Storm surge is one of the deadliest components of large, devastating hurricanes like Hurricane Milton. But reverse storm surge is a much less common, strange phenomena that sometimes happens with major storms.