A satellite image shows Hurricane Milton to the north of the Yucatan Peninsula as the sun rises over the Gulf of Mexico. The storm is forecast to start bringing dangerous conditions to Florida’s western coast on Wednesday.
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Communities in Florida are bracing for the impact of Hurricane Milton, which quickly intensified from a tropical storm to a powerful, life-threatening hurricane much faster than predicted.
“Tampa; Cape Coral; Orlando — basically the entire I-4corridor: You need to be preparing for hurricane conditions,” National Hurricane Center Deputy Director Jamie Rhome said in an update on Monday. “So no more waiting and looking. You need to be securing your home.”
People under evacuation orders should do that now while they still can, he added.
As of 11 a.m. ET Tuesday, Milton was about 520 miles southwest of Tampa, Fla., moving at 9 miles per hour and carrying maximum sustained wind speeds of 150 mph. A slew of advisories are in effect across large stretches of the western Florida coastline, where storm surges could reach as high as 15 feet.
Forecasters believe the hurricane isn’t likely to regain 180 mph wind speeds, but they warn that Milton will remain a major storm — and it will get bigger as it approaches Florida, widening the potential areas where communities could see dangerous winds and flooding.
“In fact, the official forecast shows the hurricane and tropical-storm-force winds roughly doubling in size by the time it makes landfall,” the NHC said on Tuesday.
Local resources
Member stations across the NPR Network in Florida are covering the local impact of Hurricane Milton.
➡️ Tampa Bay [via WUSF]
➡️ Tampa [via WMNF]
➡️ Orlando [via Central Florida Public Media]
➡️ Fort Myers via [WGCU]
➡️ Miami [via WLRN]
➡️ Gainesville [via WUFT]
➡️ Jacksonville [via WJCT]
➡️ Find your local station
Milton underwent a stunning explosive intensification after becoming a hurricane on Sunday, ratcheting up its windspeeds over very warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico and benefiting from a lack of strong wind shear. By Monday night it had sustained winds of 180 mph, making it a fearsome Category 5 storm.
By early Tuesday morning, the National Hurricane Center had slightly downgraded Milton from a Category 5 to a Category 4 storm, but officials at the agency warned of the storm’s power. “Milton poses an extremely serious threat to Florida and residents are urged to follow the order of local officials,” the NHC said.
The storm’s center is forecast to skim past Mexico’s northern Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday, bringing hurricane conditions to the area before heading northeast toward the U.S.
The new threat comes just under two weeks after Hurricane Helene — another rapidly intensifying storm — brought catastrophic levels of storm surge, rain and strong winds to Florida.
Noah Weibel and his dog, Cookie, return home on Monday as their family prepares for the arrival of Hurricane Milton in Port Richey, Florida.
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Mike Carlson /AP
Milton is expected to make landfall on the western coast of Florida late Wednesday or early Thursday morning. But NHC forecasters also warn that weather conditions in Florida will start to deteriorate much earlier on Wednesday, urging people to complete any preparations on Tuesday.
“Hurricane conditions are expected in the warning area on the west coast of Florida as early as Wednesday afternoon, with tropical storm conditions beginning early Wednesday,” the agency said.
Current projections call for Milton to hit Florida’s Gulf Coast south of Tampa as a major storm, then maintain hurricane strength as it blasts across the state south of Orlando and exits into the Atlantic Ocean. Forecasters caution that slight deviations in conditions could alter its track, urging residents to be vigilant for updates from local officials.
A tracking map shows Hurricane Milton’s expected path toward Florida’s western shore, with a landfall forecast for late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.
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Counties have enforced mandatory evacuation zones, and state and local officials have profusely warned residents to follow those orders.
“Schools in more than 20 counties are slated to close Tuesday,” member station WUSF reports. “The University of Florida and several other colleges canceled classes this week.”
Milton’s storm surge could surpass the wall of water brought by Helene.
“The Florida west coast is incredibly susceptible to storm surge,” Rhome said. “And that’s why there is a storm surge warning now in effect from basically Flamingo down here in Everglades National Park all the way up to just north of Cedar Key. That includes Cape Coral; Tampa Bay; Fort Myers; Sarasota.”
The U.S. Coast Guard’s St. Petersburg sector declared “port condition Zulu” as of Tuesday morning, closing 19 Florida ports to traffic. The designation means “gale force winds could impact our maritime operations within 12 hours,” according to Port Tampa Bay. The port says Hurricane Milton will disrupt the plans of at least three cruise ship companies: Carnival; Margaritaville at Sea; and Royal Caribbean.
In advance of the storm’s arrival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a state of emergency for 51 counties. “You don’t have to evacuate hundreds of miles,” Ron DeSantis has said. “Every county has places within them that you can go to. Maybe it’s a friend’s house, maybe it’s a hotel, maybe it’s a shelter.”
Air travel into and around Florida is already being disrupted by Milton. Tampa International Airport said it was pausing flights beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday. The Federal Aviation Administration said on X, formerly Twitter, that it was “closely monitoring” the path of the hurricane and advised travelers to check the agency’s flight travel dashboard and their airlines for updates.