Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida’s west coast Wednesday night, bringing a “life-threatening” storm surge and 120 mph winds.
Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Siesta Key in Sarasota County around 8:30 p.m., with winds up to 120 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center — significantly lighter than the 180 mph Milton blew while raging as a Category 5 storm at various points as it traveled across the gulf.
The storm’s landfall just south of Tampa Bay was fortuitous, however — if it struck the heart of the bay, or even north of it, forecasters feared it would result in one of the most dangerous storm surges in US history.
Tampa Bay is almost tailor-made for dangerous storm surges. Shallow waters offshore cause waves to pile up as they push towards land, while the bay’s shape and opening further compress the approaching water.
Most of the surrounding communities sit at elevations below 10 feet, meaning a 13-foot storm surge would leave hundreds of thousands of homes dangerously submerged.
Many feared a direct hit to Tampa Bay could create a calamity to rival Hurricane Katrina in 2005, where overwhelmed levees broke and flooded massive swatch of the city at the cost of more than 1,300 lives.
Over 3 million people who live around Tampa Bay were ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm, with Tampa Mayor Jane Castor cautioning “If you choose to stay … you are going to die.”
Milton made history as it charged toward Florida, peaking as the second strongest Gulf hurricane in history just a day after forming off the Yucatan Peninsula.
Its lowest pressure — commonly used to measure a hurricane’s strength, with lower numbers denoting more power — peaked at 897 millibars, just behind violent Hurricane Rita’s 895 mb in 2005.
Katrina, by comparison, peaked at a strength of 902 mb with winds of 175 mph.
Even as the storm weakened while approaching Florida’s coast — typical behavior for a hurricane — it swelled rapidly in size in the final hours before landfall, stretching to more than 250 miles in diameter from 175 in just a matter of hours.
Travelling on a northeasterly course, Milton’ s effects are being felt across the entirety of Florida — just two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated portions of the state.
But while Helene travelled north into heart of the US south — wreaking chaos with severe flooding that led to at least 230 deaths — Milton will mercifully blow out the eastern end of Florida and into the Atlantic Ocean.
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