Hurricane Milton

Because it has intensified so quickly, does that limit its size ?

Yucatan peninsula looks to take a proper blow now. That should disrupt it a little id have thought?

In Ireland we put up with the $hite weather but don't get any extreme event's.

In Florida etc they put up with the extreme event's for the great weather.

Pick your poison 😂

Here is an image I saved 19 years ago (long before AI generated images) of what damage debris can do.

I have this saved as from hurricane Andrew in1992

It could make it's way into the records of the most intense Atlantic hurricanes on record. Maria is at 10 with 908mb

Looks like it is now 185mph.

Was in Clearwater, FL back in the summer. Will be watching the Fox 35 webcams on Wed evening / Thursday to see what impact it has.

Should be an interesting watch this.

Its going to smash into florida pass over it and emerge in the Atlantic still a hurricane according to the latest charts.

https://www.youtube.com/live/uLRVRBWs8LA?feature=shared

Down to 897mb, 200+ mph sustained winds! This thing is a beast!

Milton undergoing Eyewall replacement and weakening to 155mph sustained winds.

Still a strong Cat 4 and plenty of time to strengthen further before it makes landfall tomorrow morning

Seems that the entire region is viewed as the Atlantic region for weather events.

No, gave up on that during the 60/70s mainly due to eyewall replacement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Stormfury

I think the CAT number at landfall can be a bit misleading from a damage perspective. The wind will pass quickly but its the water and the surge that will not change much even if it drops off from a 5 to a 3 close to landfall.

If the windfield is strong and large for long enough period over a large fetch of open water the momentum will carry it a long way. 1m x 1m x1m of water weights 1,000kg so imagine the sheer kinetic energy in a 2m (6 foot) surge as it moves forward. Now scale that up in height and width as its slowly but steadily pushes forward. It will take a lot of physucal structres and material to absorb and stop it. Now scale that up a few feet / meters and the numbers get silly very quickly.

Another item I haven't seen mentioned is that post Ian two years ago much of the natural habitat, I'm going to mangroves but not all of it was, some of it was trees, shrubs. dense foliage etc along beaches and rivers was wiped out. It hasn't returned and what has is not as thick, so in many places the surge now has freer more clear access to run unobstructed.

This was the view from my good firends condo on the beach before and after Ian. As I said it was erased, not a trace left. This area is still open today so any surge now has a clear path to drive much further inland. Sorry about teh quality but its through a lanai (fine mesh screen to keep bugs out).

Supposed to fly on Saturday arriving on Sunday

what are the parks saying? Tricky one.

I can't even begin to imagine how terrifying it would be to get caught up in a storm like this. Back in October 2000 I got caught in Cyclone Oratia and that was scary enough.

I was part of a group that climbed Snowdon in Wales the morning it hit. We got back to camp and it was chaos, our tents took flight and a lot of our stuff was destroyed by rain. We hiked to a nearby pub, and the landlord knew a farmer with some outbuildings he let us stay in, but then the corrugated roof got torn off one of them so we all spent the night huddled together in a shed waiting for the worst to pass. Pretty sure that event gave rise to my interest in weather but specifically storms. I follow most of them that come to our shores with a lot of interest but sprinkled with a bit of healthy fear of them!

These massive hurricanes though are another beast altogether, the sheer power and scale of something like Milton just dwarfs anything that comes our way and I'd be beyond terrified in that scenario. I hope those that have chosen to stay put can stay safe, but I'd have been on the road out of there at the weekend.

watched BBC weather guy saying it had dropped 50millibars in 10 hours. For some reason that seemed to very significant as he clearly was emotional about what this meant to the devastation yet to be caused

Ian made landfall just north of Fort Myers and caught places south of gaurd as it was supposed to come ashore further North around Tampa. That swing south and increase in surge caused a lot of damage.

Presently this is due to make landfall at Tampa but if it swings south again then it's will be similar. This looks like a bigger storm so they are in the storm surge evac area in Naples and Collier County. We've a lot of friends there and many in a similar situation.

What's going to happen at this stageis going to happen so it's just a wait and see scenario now for them.

The people who sailed into hurricanes, didn't get to sail back home.