Hurricane Milton, a monster category 4 storm, is on a collision course with Florida as it explodes in intensity.
Milton’s intensity has cooled slightly from a category five to a still devastating category four storm. The storm’s central pressure dropped to 892 millibars Monday night, making it one of the five strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean.
As Milton advances toward the Yucatan Peninsula, its intensity will fluctuate, but experts predict the storm will grow in size. This increased size will likely ensure a larger storm surge and broader wind field.
Experts expect Milton to swing just north of Merida, Mexico, avoiding a direct hit on the area by just a few dozen miles. The storm will then begin to swing to the Northeast, taking aim at the Florida gulf coast.
Forecasts continue to show the storm heading toward Tampa. According to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center, Milton will be near Tampa Bay by the early morning hours on Thursday. If the current forecast holds, the storm will bring winds of over 125mph to an area home to 3 million people.
Hurricane Milton forcing massive evacuation along the Florida coast
The storm has already broken records with two days before it makes landfall. It has become the most rapidly intensifying storm ever in the Atlantic basin. Milton intensified from a tropical storm to a category five hurricane in less than 48 hours.
Milton will impact Florida just days after Hurricane Helene rocked the region. Helene hit the Big Bend in Florida as a category four storm, bringing a storm surge that destroyed surrounding islands. As the storm moved inland, it unleashed torrents of rain. The flash flooding and mudslides that followed washed away entire towns across the southeast, leaving hundreds dead and hundreds more missing.
Thousands in the Tampa Bay area are heeding evacuation orders ahead of Milton, clogging highways and interstates out of town. The city could experience a storm surge as high as 15 feet as the storm approaches.
Kevin Guthrie, the head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, says the start is likely to face the largest evacuation in nearly a decade. Tampa’s mayor, Jane Castor, issued a strong warning as she urged individuals to evacuate.
“There’s never been one like this,” Castor said. “Helene was a wake-up call, this is literally catastrophic. And I can say without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re gonna die.”
