Local residents fill sandbags as rain starts to fall in Kissimmee, Fla., on Sunday.
Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images
Tropical storm Milton has strengthened into a hurricane — a day earlier than forecasters anticipated — as Florida officials prepare for the state’s largest evacuation in years.
Milton, now a Category 1 storm, is churning in the Gulf of Mexico with sustained winds of 80 miles per hour. It was about 815 miles away from Tampa as of Sunday 2 p.m. ET.
Meteorologists initially expected Milton to become a hurricane on Monday, but the storm has been defined by its rapidly intensifying nature.
Milton is still forecast to make landfall on Wednesday, anywhere from north of Tampa to south of Fort Myers on Florida’s Gulf Coast. By then, it is anticipated to grow into a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 125 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center.
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The center’s director Michael Brennan urged Florida residents to complete storm preparations and seek safety by Tuesday in order to shelter in place on Wednesday. Milton is expected to exit into the Atlantic Ocean by Thursday.
All of the areas where Milton is set to strike were already hammered by Category 4 Hurricane Helene’s storm surge and flooding less than two weeks ago. Milton is expected to produce similar life-threatening storm conditions, including storm surge and strong winds.
In a press conference on Sunday, Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said the state may see its largest evacuation since Hurricane Irma in 2017, when nearly 6.8 million Floridians evacuated their homes.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday expanded the state of emergency order to include 51 out of the state’s 67 counties, including all of central Florida, in preparation for Milton’s arrival. The governor’s order activates the Florida National Guard as needed and expedites debris cleanup from Hurricane Helene.
Meanwhile, a flood watch has already been issued for wide swaths of central and south Florida, including cities Palm Beach, Miami, Orlando and Tampa. The flood watch is in effect until Thursday.
The abnormally warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, fueled by human-caused climate change, have turbocharged the rapid intensification of storms in recent years which are windier and rainier than past hurricanes.
As always, storms are fickle and don’t always perform as forecast. They are subject to the vagaries of atmospheric changes that can lead to wobbles, changes in their tracks, and unexpected intensifications or weakening.
With Milton reaching hurricane strength, it’s the first time there have been three simultaneous hurricanes recorded after September (Kirk, Leslie and Milton) according to storm researcher Philip Klotzbach. This is the ninth hurricane to form in the 2024 season and the fifth since Sept. 25 — shattering the old record of two during that period.
Helene’s death toll has surpassed 200, as Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia continue to uncover the full extent of the storm’s damage.
In Florida, at least 19 people have died as a result of Helene, according to USA Today.Helene is considered one of the deadliest hurricanes to have hit the continental U.S. since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
