TAMPA, Fla. — In the wake of Hurricane Helene leaving behind damage across the Southeast, another powerful storm has made landfall in Florida.
Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm on Florida's Gulf Coast around 7:30 p.m. By Thursday morning, the storm was a Category 1 exiting Florida and moving into the Atlantic Ocean.
Below are the latest updates on Hurricane Milton, including its path, updated forecast, spaghetti models, and storm surge potential.
Hurricane Milton live radar
Milton formed in the western Gulf of Mexico early Saturday afternoon. Then, it underwent rapid intensification Monday morning. It quickly gained Category 5 strength.
Milton is the second Category 5 storm this season. Hurricane Beryl was the first. Milton joins Michael as the only Category 5 storm in October in the Gulf on record and is the strongest hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico this late in the season. The minimum pressure was below 900 MB making it the strongest Gulf hurricane since 2005 (Wilma).
Areas on the track's right-hand side experienced the worst storm surge. However, most of the central coast of Florida saw a destructive storm surge.
The highest rainfall was noted on the left hand side of Milton - from Tampa towards Orlando.
Areas well inland saw significant impacts from Milton as well. Winds toppled trees and caused power outages across Central Florida. Heavy rainfall also contributed to flooding in inland Florida as well. Milton's outer bands also produced several tornadoes well ahead of landfall.
Of course, this means areas still recovering from Helene (Tampa Bay and other areas along the western coast of Florida) will have more to clean up. However, this storm did NOT affect most of Georgia, Tennessee, and The Carolinas still recovering from Helene.
Is Hurricane Milton going to hit Texas?
The short answer is no.
A much larger weather pattern is helping guide Milton toward Florida and away from Texas. The cold front at the beginning of this week plays a huge part in keeping any tropical activity away from Texas this week. It is also the same system that helped bring Milton down a category ahead of landfall.
October typically does not bring much tropical activity to Texas. Only 6 hurricanes or tropical storms have made landfall in Texas during October on record (records go back to the 1800s).
The overall pattern usually doesn't favor significant tropical systems moving into Texas.
Milton is occurring in a very common area for October. Favored areas of formation are in the southern/western Caribbean, eastern Gulf of Mexico, and off the East Coast of the U.S. And usually tracks are north/northeastward from that point.
