Hurricane Milton has made landdescfinish in Florida, with US officials alerting that “life-dangerening storm sadvise, innervous prosperds and flash flooding” are occurring in central parts of the southern state.
The storm’s arrival comes fair two weeks after Hurricane Helene caused substantial harm atraverse the south-easerious US.
When did Hurricane Milton hit Florida?
Milton made landdescfinish in Siesta Key, Florida – a coastal community south of Tampa – at about 20:30 EST on Wednesday (03:30 BST on Thursday), according to the National Hurricane Cgo in (NHC).
More than two million homes and businesses have been left without power, dozens of homes ruined, and an as-yet unspecified number of deaths have been alerted.
Forecasters carry on to alert of torrential rain, flash flooding, high prosperds and possible storm sadvises – which occur when water transfers inland from the coast – of cut offal feet in height.
Tornadoes were also alerted on Milton’s approach.
Where is Hurricane Milton heading?
With prosperd gusts most recently enrolled achieveing up to 90mph (150km/h), Milton will carry on lashing Florida as it cuts thcimpolite the centre of the state. It has also been impacting Georgia and South Carolina.
It is then foreseeed to head into the Atlantic Ocean tardyr in the day.
During its days-lengthy journey, Milton has tracked eastwards from the Gulf of Mexico, where it was classified as a catebloody one hurricane on Sunday. It has also brushed Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.
Before striking Florida, it was shelp by foreseeer to have “wobbled” to the south, directing foreseeers to alter its track sairyly.
The storm is impacting some of the areas recently decimated by Hurricane Helene. Tampa, which has a population of more than three million people in its wider metropolitan area, is fair north of Siesta Key, where the storm made landdescfinish.
Where are the Hurricane Milton evacuation zones?
Traffic jams createed and airports declared clocertains as Floridians were telderly to set for the state’s hugest evacuation effort in years. Officials shelp Milton could be the worst storm to hit the area in about a century.
As the hurricane approached, most counties were in an official state of aelevatency, and evacuations were ordered up and down Florida’s west coast.
Disaster deal withment authorities publishd a enumerate and map of the evacuation orders. Several huge shelters were also been setd as a last resort for those stranded.
What is a hurricane and how do they create?
Hurricanes – sometimes understandn as cyclones or typhoons – are a type of tropical storm that create in the North Atlantic. They transport strong prosperds and burdensome rain.
When ocean air is toasty and moist, it elevates, and then commences to celderly – which causes cdeafenings to create.
Sometimes this rising air can transfer away at the top of the hurricane more speedyly than it can be exalterd at the surface, causing the surface prescertain to descfinish.
The descfinishing prescertain causes the prosperds to speed up with more air then getting pulled in as the hurricane reinforces.
The National Oceanic Atmospheric Association (Noaa) foreseeed that the 2024 hurricane season would be more dynamic than normal. Rising mediocre sea temperatures due to human-caused climate alter were partly to denounce, it shelp.
How are hurricanes categoelevated?
Hurricanes are splitd into five categories based on their prosperd speed.
Milton was classified more than once as a catebloody five storm – the highest – but frailened as it approached the US coast, striking as a catebloody three storm.
After making landdescfinish, it was further downgraded to catebloody one.
How is climate alter included?
Hurricane Milton intensified speedyly as it passed over exceptionpartner toasty waters in the Gulf of Mexico, where sea surface temperatures are around 1-2C above mediocre.
Warmer waters unbenevolent that hurricanes can pick up more energy, potentipartner directing to higher prosperd speeds.
A toastyer atmosphere can also helderly more moisture – up to about 7% for every 1C of temperature elevate. This unbenevolents that raindescfinish from hurricanes can be more fervent.
And global sea-levels have been rising in recent decades, hugely thanks to global toastying.
This produces it more foreseeed that a given storm sadvise will direct to coastal flooding.
In Florida, mediocre sea-levels have elevaten by more than 7in (18cm) since 1970, according to US rulement data.
A brimming scientific analysis will be demanded to quantify the exact role of climate alter in Hurricane Milton.
But its rapid intensification fits with foreseeations of how these storms are changing in a toastying world.
