Hurricane Milton to impact Florida Gulf Coast

NOAA Satellite image of  a strengthening Hurricane Milton located in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, just west of the Yucatan Peninsula on Monday morning. Milton is forecast to become a powerful category 4 hurricane as the storm heads for Florida's west coast. (NOAA/NWS)

Hurricane Milton developed over the weekend in the Southwestern Gulf of Mexico, and is forecast to strengthen into a major hurricane on Monday. Hurricane watches have been issued for the west coast of Florida, for some of the same regions hit by deadly Helene just over a week ago. Many of theses regions are still cleaning up debris and restoring power and water. Close to 250,000 residents remain without power from Helene across four southeastern states.

Mandatory evacuations have been ordered in many coastal counties along Florida's west coast. These are some of the same areas pounded by storm surge flooding from Hurricane Helene on September 26. (NHC)

Early Monday morning, Hurricane Milton was located 1195km west, southwest of Tampa, moving east, southeast at 13km/h. Winds have increased to 205km/h, (125mph) with rapid intensification expected to continue today. Milton is currently a category 3 hurricane.  Forecasters expect Milton to turn towards the northeast at an increased forward speed, and approach the Florida Gulf Coast by Wednesday as a major category 3 or 4 hurricane.

Power remains out to over 250,000 residents across four southeastern US states. Over 100 Hydro-One employees from Ontario headed south late last week to assist Georgia Power in restoring power to nearly 125,000 clients in their state. Helene claimed over 225 lives and produced widespread damage in the billions across six states. (Hydro-One Photo)

Mandatory evacuations have already been ordered for many coastal counties. As we saw with Hurricane Helene, storm surge flooding can be very intense along the Gulf Coast. Two things you should know about Milton, the waters of the Gulf are very warm this year adding potent fuel to the storm and allowing it to intensify rapidly over the next day or so. The angle of approach to the west coast of Florida is very unusual, and this will only add to the level of the storm surge, espcially for the barrier islands and Tampa Bay. Milton is expected to cross the entire state of Florida from west to east, with the potential for significant damage and numerous impacts.

Hurricane Milton should cross the Florida peninsula on Thursday and move into the open waters of the Atlantic. At present, the storm is forecast to remain well south of New England, with zero impacts for our region.