This Wednesday, Hurricane Milton lost intensity again and dropped in category, from 4 to 3, with maximum sustained winds of 205 kilometers per hour, heading for the west coast of Florida, where the first tornadoes have already occurred and their arrival is expected. tonight
According to an update from the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), Milton, however, has grown in size and its tropical storm force winds extend up to about 400 kilometers from its center.
Read: Hurricane Milton returns to category 5 and approaches Florida
The system is located 160 kilometers west-northwest of Fort Myers, in Lee County and 155 kilometers southwest of Tampa, on the same coast, and is moving northeast at 28 kilometers per hour.
NHC meteorologists indicated that they are already feeling intense precipitation with tropical storm force winds inland on the Florida Peninsula. There are also multiple tornado warnings in effect throughout Florida.
Milton is expected to turn toward the east-northeast and east next Thursday and Friday, and on the forecast track, the center will make landfall tonight somewhere along the central west coast of Florida, then cross the peninsula at throughout the night until emerging into Atlantic waters on Thursday morning.
Forecasters expect Milton to remain an “extremely dangerous large magnitude” hurricane when it reaches the Florida coast tonight, and to maintain hurricane strength as it passes through the peninsula.
There is great concern about the storm surge that Milton can cause in Tampa Bay, between 3 to 4.5 meters high.
The heavy rains that Milton will dump across the Florida peninsula through Thursday will carry “the risk of catastrophic flash and urban flooding,” especially in areas where coastal and inland flooding combine.
The United States Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) warned this Wednesday that Hurricane Milton will be “catastrophic and deadly” and asked the population to use these last hours to leave the area and for those who have not been able to “look for places insurance immediately.”
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, warned this Tuesday that Hurricane Milton could be the “worst” to hit the state of Florida in a century and asked people in the path of the storm to evacuate as soon as possible. .
According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Atlantic hurricane season, which officially began on June 1, could have “above” average activity, with between 8 and 13 hurricanes, of which between 4 and 7 would be of higher category.
Since the hurricane season began, nine hurricanes have formed: Beryl, Debby, Ernesto, Francine, Helene, Isaac, Kirk, Lesley and now Milton, of which Beryl Milton reached category 5, the maximum on the Saffir intensity scale. -Simpson.
With information from EFE
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