Tuesday Hurricane Milton Update for Tampa Bay
Denis Phillips shared a bit of good news regarding Hurricane Milton after midnight: “0z models continue to nudge Milton a bit to the South. The GFS has moved from Cedar Key to just South of Tampa in the past 12 hours. That’s a big swing. Nothing drastic with the other models, but a 15 mile difference could mean a huge change in high impact area.”
This morning, Denis noted that Milton continues to show fluctuations in intensity. Winds are at 145 mph with a pressure that’s up a bit since the last update. But he says there are no big changes to the track. Denis says the 5AM update showed a small “nudge” to the south but he says he doesn’t make much of it.
The biggest change is timing. The storm originally looked to arrive Wednesday night. It now looks like Milton’s landfall will happen early Thursday morning. Greg Dee noted in his update this morning that even tomorrow (Wednesday) during the day could be relatively calm.
Next Hurricane Milton Update
More data will come in at 11AM from the National Hurricane Center. Denis says the windspeed decreasing is due to a second eyewall forming. While that sounds like good news, he says that slowdown may be temporary.
Hurricane Milton arrives late Wednesday night into early Thursday morning with that small center of the storm delivering category 3 hurricane winds. Denis Phillips reminds us that “cone of uncertainty” is still located between Cedar Key and Ft Myers. The National Hurricane Center updates at 11AM, 5PM and 11PM Tuesday should be helpful in determining where Milton will make landfall.
Today
Conditions will not be so bad today. It’ll be a good chance to get last minute preparations done. Tampa International Airport will cease operations this morning at 9am. They will assess the conditions after the storm passes to determine when they’ll reopen.
Evacuation orders can be found here on the ABC Action News website. This storm will be deadly near the eyewall. For those living along the coast, today is your last chance to get away from the water.
Schools all over the area are closed. Stay tuned to this and all of the Beasley Media Group stations (99.5 QYK, Q105, WiLD 94.1, 92.5 MAXIMA and 98.7 The Shark) as we bring new Hurricane Milton information to you hourly on the air from Denis Phillips and the rest of the ABC Action News team.
