Hurricane Milton strengthened back to Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale after completing an eyewall replacement cyclone on Tuesday.\u00a0 At 5:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday the center of Hurricane Milton was located at latitude 22.7\u00b0N and longitude 87.5\u00b0W which put the center about 480 miles (775 km) southwest of Tampa, Florida.\u00a0 Milton was moving toward the east-northeast at 9 m.p.h. (15 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 165 m.p.h. (265 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 195 m.p.h. (315 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 905 mb.<\/p>\n
A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from Bonita Beach to the Mouth of the Suwanee River, Florida.\u00a0 The Hurricane Warning includes Tampa Bay.\u00a0 A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from the St. Lucie\/Martin County Line to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A Hurricane Watch is in effect for the portion of the coast from Chokoloskee to Bonita Beach, Florida.\u00a0 A Hurricane Watch is in effect for Lake Okeechobee.\u00a0 A Hurricane Watch is in effect for the Dry Tortugas.\u00a0 A Hurricane Watch is in effect for the portion of the coast from Ponte Vedra Beach to the Mouth of the St. Mary\u2019s River, Florida.\u00a0 A Hurricane Watch is in effect for the portion of the coast from St. Lucie\/Martin County Line to the Martin\/Palm Beach County Line, Florida.<\/span><\/p>\n A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Florida Keys and the Dry Tortugas.\u00a0 A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Lake Okeechobee.\u00a0 A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from Flamingo to Bonita Beach, Florida.\u00a0 A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from the Mouth of the Suwanee River to Indian Pass, Florida.\u00a0 A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from Flamingo to the St. Lucie\/Martin County Line, Florida.\u00a0 A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida to Altamaha Sound, Georgia.\u00a0 A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from Dzilam to Cancun, Mexico.\u00a0 A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the extreme Northwestern Bahamas including Grand Bahama Island, the Abacos and Bimini.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the portion of the coast from Altamaha Sound, Georgia to the South Santee River, South Carolina.<\/span><\/p>\n Hurricane Milton strengthened back to Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale on Tuesday afternoon after an eyewall replacement cycle was completed.\u00a0 A new eye with a diameter of 12 miles (19 km) was at the center of Milton’s circulation.\u00a0 The eye was surrounded by a ring of thunderstorms and the strongest winds were occurring in that ring of storms.\u00a0 Bands of showers and thunderstorms were revolving around the center of Milton.\u00a0 Storms near the center of Milton\u2019s circulation generated strong upper level divergence that pumped large quantities of mass away from the hurricane.\u00a0 The removal of large amounts of mass caused the surface pressure to remain very low.<\/p>\n The completion of the eyewall replacement cycle caused the size of the circulation around Hurricane Milton to increase a little more.\u00a0 Winds to hurricane force extend out 30 miles (50 km) from the center of Milton\u2019s circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extend out 140 miles (220 km) from the center of Hurricane Milton.<\/p>\n The Hurricane Intensity Index (HII) for Hurricane Milton is 36.8. The Hurricane Size Index (HSI) is 11.7 and the Hurricane Wind Intensity Size Index (HWISI) is 48.5.\u00a0 Hurricane Milton is stronger than Hurricane Michael was when Michael hit Northwest Florida in 2018.\u00a0 Milton is not quite as big as Michael was.\u00a0 Hurricane Milton is similar in size and intensity to Hurricane Otis when Otis hit Acapulco last year.<\/p>\n Hurricane Milton move through an environment favorable for a powerful hurricane during the next 18 hours.\u00a0 Milton will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperatures are near 30\u00b0C.\u00a0 It will move under the axis of an upper level ridge over the Gulf of Mexico.\u00a0 The upper level winds are weak near the axis of the ridge and there will be little vertical wind shear. Hurricane Milton will could intensify a little more during the next 18 hours.\u00a0 An upper level trough over the Mississippi River Valley will produce westerly winds that will blow toward the top of Milton’s circulation later on Wednesday.\u00a0 Those winds will cause the vertical wind shear to increase and Hurricane Milton is likely to start to weaken on Wednesday afternoon.\u00a0 In addition, the inner end of another rainband could wrap around the existing eye and eyewall.\u00a0 If concentric eyewalls form again, then another eyewall replacement cycle will cause Hurricane Milton to weaken faster.\u00a0 However, if an another eyewall replacement cycle occurs, then the size of Milton\u2019s circulation will increase again.<\/p>\n The upper level trough over the Mississippi River Valley will start to steer Milton more quickly toward the northeast during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 On its anticipated track, Hurricane Milton will reach the west coast of Florida on Wednesday night.\u00a0 Milton will be a major hurricane when it reaches Florida.<\/p>\n Hurricane Milton will be a major hurricane when it hits the west coast of Florida.\u00a0 Milton will bring strong gusty winds and heavy rain to the west coast of Florida. Milton will also bring strong winds and heavy rain to central Florida.<\/p>\n Hurricane Warnings are in effect for many of the counties in Central Florida.\u00a0 Those Hurricane Warnings include Orlando.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Milton will be capable of causing major damage. Heavy rains will cause floods in some locations. Widespread electricity outages are likely.<\/p>\n Flood Watches are in effect for much of the Florida Peninsula.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Milton will also produce a storm surge of up to 15 feet (4.5 meters) along the west coast of Florida.<\/p>\n A Storm Surge Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from Flamingo to the Mouth of the Suwanee River, Florida.\u00a0 The Storm Surge Warning includes Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor.\u00a0 A Storm Surge Warning is also in effect for the portion of the coast from Sebastian Inlet, Florida to Altamaha Sound, Georgia.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A Storm Surge Watch has been issued for the portion of the coast from Altamaha Sound, Georgia to Edisto Beach, South Carolina.<\/span><\/p>\n Elsewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Leslie was still churning west of the Cabo Verde Islands.\u00a0 At 5:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday the center of Hurricane Leslie was located at latitude 20.0\u00b0N and longitude 46.4\u00b0W which put the center about 1490 miles (2400 km) west-northwest of the Cabo Verde Islands.\u00a0 Leslie was moving toward the northwest at 14 m.p.h. (22 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 75 m.p.h. (120 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 90 m.p.h. (150 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 992 mb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hurricane Milton strengthened back to Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale after completing an eyewall replacement cyclone on Tuesday.\u00a0 At 5:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday the center of Hurricane Milton was located at latitude 22.7\u00b0N and longitude 87.5\u00b0W which put the center about 480 miles (775 km) southwest of Tampa, Florida.\u00a0 Milton was moving toward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[540,541,3085,1628,3086,1303,3661,3078,3247,2257,1245,3087,51,50,98,1630,3773,650,3083,1638,3740,24,3771,1633,3739,3159,3354,99,2027,3777,3358,3774,1015,2550],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21343"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21344,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21343\/revisions\/21344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}