Richard Tribou
Orlando Sentinel
(TNS)
Hurricane Milton remained a “catastrophic” Category 5 hurricane overnight Wednesday, forecast to hit Florida’s Gulf Coast close to midnight still as a major Category 4 hurricane with “devastating” 130 mph winds and 15-foot surge, according to the National Hurricane Center.
“Damaging winds, life-threatening storm surge, and heavy rainfall will extend well outside the forecast cone,” forecasters said. “This is a very serious situation and residents in Florida should closely follow orders from their local emergency management officials.”
As of the NHC’s 5 a.m. advisory, the center of Milton was located about 300 miles southwest of Tampa moving northeast at 14 mph with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph keeping it a Category 5 hurricane.
The storm’s center is compact for now with hurricane-force winds extending out 30 miles, but tropical-storm force winds have been expanding since Tuesday now out to 145 miles from its center.
“The global models agree that vertical wind shear is expected begin to increase over Milton later today, and that should cause some weakening,” the NHC stated. “However, there is high confidence that Milton will remain a very dangerous hurricane when it reaches Florida, and maintain hurricane status as it moves across the state.”
The forecast track’s cone of uncertainty ranges from Port Charlotte to the south and Clearwater to the north, with a potential center moving near Sarasota south of Tampa Bay moving inland by 2 a.m. Thursday with 130 mph sustained winds and 160 mph gusts.
“Users are urged not to focus on the exact landfall point as the average error at 24 hours is about 40 miles,” the NHS stated.
It’s then forecast to shift to an east-northeast path across the state going across southern Polk, Osceola and Brevard counties exiting into the Atlantic still as a Category 1 hurricane near Melbourne with 80 mph sustained winds and 100 mph gusts.
“Milton’s wind field is expected to grow considerably in size while it moves across Florida,” forecasters said. “Additionally, a large region of tropical storm and hurricane-force winds could occur on the northwest/back side of the storm since Milton will be interacting with a frontal boundary and beginning extratropical transition.”
Conditions in South Florida have already begun to deteriorate as an area of heavy rain ahead of the hurricane is beginning to spread across the peninsula.
“Several tornadoes are likely today and tonight across parts of central and southern Florida,” forecasters said.
Millions were ordered to evacuate and the state’s highways have been clogged and residents faced stations without fuel. Mandatory evacuation orders for barrier islands, mobile homes and low-lying areas were issued across 11 counties with a combined population of 5.9 million people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The powerful hurricane surged Monday into a monster Category 5 storm with 180 mph winds in the Gulf of Mexico, then lost some steam overnight as it moved over the waters just north of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, falling to 145 mph winds earlier Tuesday. But then it climbed back hitting 165 mph winds in the even