How big was Hurricane Milton? Comparing its size, wind speed to other storms.

Milton made landfall at around 8:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, slamming into Florida's western coast near Tampa Bay as a Category 3 carrying sustained winds of 120 mph. Tampa's last direct hit by a major hurricane came in 1921.

But Milton's impacts were felt not so much by the size of its tropical storm field, rather the damage those storms spawned with tornadoes, heavy flooding and widespread power outages in a region already hard-hit by Helene two weeks ago. More than 3.3 million homes and businesses were without power by early Thursday.

Here's the general shape of the hurricane and tropical storm field at the time of landfall:

How did Milton compare with Helene and past hurricanes in size?

When comparing hurricane patterns released in archived NOAA advisories, the relative scale of the hurricane-force winds and the surrounding tropical-storm-force winds, these storms span hundreds of miles and multiple states.

Here's a look at how Milton and past notable hurricanes — including Helene last month — that have made landfall on the contiguous United States since Sandy have compared in size at the point of landfall:

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Contributing: Doyle Rice, Janet Loehrke

SOURCES: National Hurricane Center; USA TODAY Network reporting; Reuters