Life-threatening storm surges are expected to hit Florida's Gulf Coast this week with the arrival of Hurricane Milton, which was upgraded Monday afternoon into a Category 5 hurricane over the southern Gulf of Mexico.
The storm first strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane by 7 a.m. and by 9 a.m. ET rapidly intensified into a Category 4, the National Hurricane Center said.
In a matter of a few hours Milton "explosively intensified" into a Category 5 hurricane by noon ET. Milton now churns with fierce 175 mph winds, the NHC said in a 2 p.m. ET update. It's located about 105 miles west-northwest of Progreso, Mexico, and about 700 miles southwest of Tampa.
The storm is forecast to make landfall Wednesday evening in Florida, which along with the wider southeastern United States continues to recover from the impact of Hurricane Helene. Widespread evacuation orders are underway Florida.
As many as 15 million people are under flood watches across the Florida Peninsula and 11 million are at risk for tropical tornadoes tomorrow and Wednesday.
ninjastk on October 7th, 2024 at 14:06 UTC »
Insurance companies be like: yeaaaaah… coverage for 2025? Idk man
Th3_Admiral_ on October 7th, 2024 at 13:44 UTC »
It's crazy how quickly this has grown. I woke up with weather alerts on my phone from when it changed from 1 to 2, and then 2 to 3. And just now got the one for upgrading to a Category 4. The total time between all of these was only 3 hours.Â
WagTheKat on October 7th, 2024 at 13:32 UTC »
Even if it drops back to Cat 3 (or 2), this needs to be how we think about it.
Here in the Tampa area, and much of the state, there is damage from Helene remaining. Debris has not been cleaned up, the soil is saturated and whatever category this landfalls as will be more dangerous than other storms.
The effects will be magnified.
And many people in this area think they have been through a hurricane. The truth is, few have. We have been on the fringe of weather affected by hurricanes, mostly. Or seen the weakened remnants of storms that had already crossed the state. And that were not much more than tropical storm strength.
There is a tendency here toward apathy due to many slightly bad weather experiences that were really imposters of hurricanes by the time we felt any effects.
I know people who almost brag about being through 5-6-7-8 hurricanes in the last 20 years who live here. The worst most of us suffered was a loss of power for a couple days or the need to pick up some fallen branches.
This looks like it will be very different. And that, also, has been said many times.
Thus the complacency.