Hurricane Milton was barreling across the Gulf of Mexico as a powerful Category 5 storm early Wednesday on a path toward Florida’s central west coast, where mass evacuations clogged highways as people prepared for the potentially historic impact. It’s forecast to make landfall Wednesday night or early Thursday. Some communities, like those in and around the Tampa Bay area, were still reeling from Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago.
“Fluctuations in intensity are likely while Milton moves across the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but Milton is expected to be a dangerous major hurricane when it reaches the west-central coast of Florida,” the National Hurricane Center said early Wednesday.
CBS News Meteorologist Nikki Nolan said the latest forecast track shows Milton making landfall over or near Sarasota, Florida.
“I think the most recent models have it somewhere in Manatee County, just south of Tampa Bay,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a briefing Tuesday. “But I would just tell people, one, we’re going to have impacts far beyond wherever the eye of the storm is. Two, you can make landfall anywhere from Citrus County down into Southwest Florida. We’ll know more over the next 12 to 18 hours. But just, cones, all this stuff you see, the impacts will be broader than that, specifically with respect to storm surge.”
The National Weather Service in Tampa Bay described Milton as “a historic storm for the west coast of Florida” that could prove to be the worst to hit Tampa Bay in more than a century.
Floridians in the potential path of the hurricane lined properties with sandbags, boarded up doors and windows, and moved their boats ahead of the storm’s arrival. DeSantis issued emergency orders over the weekend that now include 51 counties, whose residents, he said, should prepare for power outages, stock up on enough food and water to last a week and be ready to leave their homes if necessary.
According to GasBuddy, as of Tuesday evening, a little more than 17% of Florida gas stations were without fuel, including more than 46% in the Tampa Bay area.
Once it makes landfall, Milton is forecast to remain a hurricane as it crosses the Florida peninsula.
It was expected to move off Florida’s east coast and into the Atlantic Ocean sometime Thursday.
Tracking Hurricane Milton
Early Wednesday, Milton was just northeast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. The Mexican government issued hurricane warnings as forecasters expected damaging winds and a life-threatening storm surge to hit portions of the coast. The hurricane had weakened somewhat since its maximum sustained wind speeds swirled past 180 mph Monday during a rapid period of intensification that the National Hurricane Center called “explosive” and “remarkable.”
Milton had dropped back down to Category 4 overnight Monday. But by Tuesday night, the storm churned over the Yucatán Peninsula with maximum wind speeds hovering around 160 mph — which is above the 157 mph threshold for a Category 5 storm. Forecasters said they expected Milton to retain its status as a major hurricane on its way to the western Florida coast.
As of 2 a.m. Eastern Time Wednesday, Milton was located 205 miles west-southwest of the Dry Tortugas, Florida, and 360 miles southwest of Tampa. It was moving northeast at 12 mph.
A hurricane warning was in effect for the Florida west coast from Bonita Beach north to Suwannee River, including Tampa Bay, and the state’s east coast from the St. Lucie-Martin County line north to Ponte Vedra Beach.
Multiple areas were also under tropical storm watches and warnings, including portions of Georgia, South Carolina and the Bahamas.
Milton’s peak strength rivaled the most disastrous Atlantic hurricanes in recorded history and happened at breakneck speed. Milton was a tropical storm only 24 hours before it snowballed into a Category 5 hurricane, the highest ranking on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which rates storms based on their sustained wind speeds.
“It is worth emphasizing that this is a very serious situation,” the hurricane center said Tuesday morning. “Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida.”
