Not Again – Hurricane Milton Barreling Toward Florida

Just a quick post tonight but I cannot believe that it was barely two weeks ago (September 26) that hurricane Francine smashed into the Big Bend of Florida and then went on to wreck Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee with absolute devastation. People in remote regions of the mountains still haven’t been reached.

Those small towns nestled in the mountains got devastated by the rains that turned into rushing rivers of water, sweeping award cars, houses, large buildings. I’m seeing horrible videos recording those waters washing away buildings.

I would imagine with those memories of that devastation, the people of Florida are probably anxiously waiting for the next impact.

I’m going to see how well this forecast holds up but so far, the actual track of the storm is running ahead of schedule. Its intensification has been faster than what has been predicted yesterday, so I am curious to see if the intensity of the hurricane truly caps at Cat 3 upon landfall. This morning the peak intensity was at Cat 3 but now (actually the 4 pm prediction) the intensity peaks at Cat 4 somewhere north of the Yucatan coast.

So, I see the trend of higher Cat than what was previously forecasted. The thing I fear is the hurricane growing to a Cat 5, which is terrifying. Hurricane Milton, by most models, seem to be heading towards the more populated areas, such as Tampa. The models have been pretty consistent on saying the hurricane will hit Florida, but the range of possibilities are just north of Tampa and on down to south of Florida. A large range.

Okay, just checked the latest forecast (10 pm Eastern) and the max wind is at Cat 4 scale for now. I hope that stays that way.

So, I’ll be checking how they track and how well the intensification prediction goes. The models seem to pick out the location fairly well, but the intensity still seems to be understated.

I will also be checking to see if the storm weakens upon approach of the coast. That would be great. The reason for that would be due to the cold front that is moving south (and keeping the hurricane away from Texas, Lousiana coasts). I think that cold front brings the wind shear which would “tilt” the eye and weaken the storm.

I hope so!