Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida's west coast Wednesday night, bringing with it “life-threatening” storm surge and 128 mph winds.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Siesta Key in Sarasota County around 8:30 p.m., with winds of up to 190 mph, but was still raging as a Category 5 storm. much lighter than Milton's 180 mph. We visited various points as we moved across the bay.
But it was a coincidence that the storm made landfall just south of Tampa Bay. If it made landfall in central Tampa Bay or further north, forecasters feared it would cause one of the most dangerous storm surges in U.S. history.
Tampa Bay is almost built for dangerous storm surges. Shallow waters offshore build up waves rushing toward land, but the shape and opening of the bay further compresses the approaching water.
Most of the surrounding communities are located less than 10 feet above sea level, and a storm surge of 13 feet could dangerously submerge hundreds of thousands of homes.
Many feared that a direct hit in Tampa Bay would be a disaster comparable to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The levee burst, flooding large areas of the city and killing more than 1,300 people.
More than 3 million people living around Tampa Bay were ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm, with Tampa Mayor Jane Castor warning, “If you choose to stay here…you're going to die.”
Milton made history by hurtling toward Florida and peaking as the second-strongest Gulf hurricane on record just one day after forming off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.
The minimum pressure, which is commonly used to measure the strength of a hurricane, with lower numbers indicating more force, peaked at 897 millibars, second only to the 895 millibars of Hurricane Rita in 2005.
In contrast, Katrina recorded peak intensity winds of 175 miles per hour and 902 megabytes per hour.
Although the storm weakened as it approached the Florida coast (typical behavior for hurricanes), its size rapidly increased in the final hours before landfall, going from 175 miles to more than 450 miles in diameter in just a few hours. It has grown to
Milton's effects are felt across Florida as it continues its northeast course, just two weeks after Hurricane Helen devastated parts of the state.
But while Helen moves north into the heart of the southern United States, wreaking havoc with deluges that have killed at least 230 people, Milton will inexorably sweep the eastern tip of Florida into the Atlantic Ocean.
