Milton strengthened overnight into a devastating Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds in excess of 160 mph. The National Hurricane Center reported early Wednseday that Milton was located about 300 miles southwest of Tampa, traversing the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico towards the northeast at 14 mph.
“On the forecast track, the center of Milton will move across the eastern Gulf of Mexico today, make landfall along the west-central coast of Florida late tonight or early Thursday morning, and move off the east coast of Florida over the western Atlantic Ocean Thursday afternoon,” NHC wrote in an advisory note.
The latest forecast states Milton will make landfall near Sarasota between 0200 ET and 0600 ET Thursday morning as a Category 4 storm.
One of the main concerns across the Tampa to Sarasota region will be the storm’s dangerous eye and eyewall unleashing record storm surges. Warnings have already been posted for much of Florida’s western coast.
Not good.
“Tampa is on a knife’s edge, but Sarasota, Siesta Key, Venice, Englewood, Port Charlotte, and Punta Gorda continue to look to experience the worst of the storm surge under this scenario,” Ben Noll, a meteorologist with New Zealand’s National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, wrote on X.
Noll continued.
Since Sunday, evacuations in the state have been the largest since 2017.
According to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, here are the areas under mandatory evacuation orders:
Charlotte County; Citrus County; Collier County; Hillsborough County; Hernando County; Lee County; Levy County; Manatee County; Pasco County; Pinellas County; Sarasota County; St. John’s County and Volusia County;
And voluntary evacuation orders:
Glades County; Okeechobee County; Dixie County; Hardee County; Miami-Dade County and Union County.
Evacuation order map:
GTFO.
Meanwhile, Tampa-area Sheriff Chad Chronister of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office told residents anyone who has not evacuated is “on their own.”