The center of Hurricane Milton neared the west coast of Florida on Wednesday afternoon.\u00a0 At 5:00 P.m. EDT on Wednesday the center of Hurricane Milton was located at latitude 26.9\u00b0N and longitude 83.4\u00b0W which put the center about 60 miles (95 km) west-southwest of Sarasota, Florida.\u00a0 Milton was moving toward the northeast at 17 m.p.h. (28 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 120 m.p.h. (195 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 140 m.p.h. (225 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 948 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 Lake Okeechobee.\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 Edisto Beach, South Carolina.\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 Hurricane Milton was weakening gradually on Wednesday afternoon, but Milton was still a major hurricane.\u00a0 An upper level trough over the southern Mississippi River Valley was producing southwesterly winds that were blowing toward the top of Milton\u2019s circulation.\u00a0 Those winds were causing moderate vertical wind shear.\u00a0 The upper level winds were also inhibiting the upper level divergence to the west of Hurricane Milton.\u00a0 The wind shear was causing Hurricane Milton to weaken gradually.<\/p>\n A circular eye was present at the center of Hurricane Milton.\u00a0 The eye was surrounded by a broken ring of thunderstorms and the strongest winds were occurring in that ring of storms.\u00a0 Thunderstorms were occurring in bands in the eastern and northern parts of Hurricane Milton.\u00a0 Bands in the southern and western parts of Milton\u2019s circulation consisted primarily of showers and lower clouds.\u00a0 Storms near the center of Milton generated upper level divergence that pumped mass away to the northeast of the hurricane.<\/p>\n Even though Hurricane Milton is weakening, the circulation around Milton is getting larger.\u00a0 Winds to hurricane force extend out 35 miles (55 km) from the center of Milton\u2019s circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extend out 250 miles (400 km) from the center of Hurricane Milton.<\/p>\n The Hurricane Intensity Index (HII) for Hurricane Milton is 22.1.\u00a0 The Hurricane Size Index (HSI) is 16.8 and the Hurricane Wind Intensity Size Index (HWISI) is 38.9.\u00a0 Hurricane Milton is similar in intensity to Hurricane Irma when Irma hit southwest Florida in 2017.\u00a0 Milton is not as big as Irma was.<\/p>\n Hurricane Milton will move through an environment unfavorable for intensification during the next few hours.\u00a0 Milton will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperatures are near 29\u00b0C.\u00a0 However, the upper level trough over the southern Mississippi River Valley will continue to cause moderate to strong vertical wind shear.\u00a0 The wind shear will cause Hurricane Milton to continue to weaken gradually during the next few hours.<\/p>\n The upper level trough over the southern Mississippi River Valley will steer Hurricane Milton toward the northeast east during the next 12 hours.\u00a0 On its anticipated track, the center of Hurricane Milton will make landfall in a few hours on the west coast of Florida near or just to the south of Tampa.<\/p>\n Even though Hurricane Milton weakened today, Milton is still expected to be a major hurricane when it hits the west coast of Florida.\u00a0\u00a0 Milton will bring strong gusty winds and heavy rain to the west coast of Florida.\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Milton will be capable of causing major damage.\u00a0 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.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Milton will also produce a storm surge of up to 15 feet (4.5 meters) along the west coast of Florida.\u00a0 The highest storm surge is likely to occur along the portion of the coast just to the south of Tampa.\u00a0 A storm surge of 8 to 12 feet (2,4 to 3.7 meters) could occur in Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n A Storm Surge Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from Flamingo to the Yankeetown, 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 Thunderstorms in bands in the eastern periphery of Hurricane Milton have already produced tornadoes over South Florida.\u00a0 A Tornado Watch is in effect for much of the Florida Peninsula.<\/strong><\/p>\n Elsewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Leslie intensified east-northeast of the Northern Leeward Islands.\u00a0 At 5:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday the center of Hurricane Leslie was located at latitude 22.2\u00b0N and longitude 49.0\u00b0W which put the center about 955 miles (1535 km) east-northeast of the Northern Leeward Islands.\u00a0 Leslie was moving toward the northwest at 9 m.p.h. (15 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 90 m.p.h. (145 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 105 m.p.h. (165 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 982 mb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The center of Hurricane Milton neared the west coast of Florida on Wednesday afternoon.\u00a0 At 5:00 P.m. EDT on Wednesday the center of Hurricane Milton was located at latitude 26.9\u00b0N and longitude 83.4\u00b0W which put the center about 60 miles (95 km) west-southwest of Sarasota, Florida.\u00a0 Milton was moving toward the northeast at 17 m.p.h. […]<\/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":[540,541,3085,1628,3086,3661,3247,1245,3087,50,98,1630,3773,650,3083,1638,3779,3771,1633,2049,3739,3159,3091,3354,99,3777,3774,1015,2550,1634,3663],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21355"}],"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=21355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21356,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21355\/revisions\/21356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}