Hurricane Milton’s dizzying ascen t into the record books slacked Tuesday, Oct. 8, but its slip in sustained wind speeds did not dull the briny ruin and heartbreak headed to the Sunshine State.
The National Hurricane Center predicts that Hurricane Milton will reach the central west coast of Florida late Wednesday or in the predawn darkness of Thursday morning as a major hurricane pumping killer storm surge of up to 15 feet into the state’s porous beaches and inlets between Cape Coral and Crystal River.
All of South Florida, including Palm Beach County, is under a tropical storm warning , which was was newly issued Tuesday morning. A tropical storm warning means tropical storm-force winds are expected within 36 hours.
The middle of Milton’s forecast track cone, which has remained relatively consistent but ticked slightly south early Tuesday, takes it near the vulnerable Tampa Bay area. In a worse case scenario, Milton could bring an annihilation scenario that National Weather Service meteorologists said would be the most devastating to impact Tampa in more than a century.