Milton rapidly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane late Monday morning.
Within hours, Milton strengthened to a Category 2, then a Category 3, then a Category 4 and finally a Category 5.
Milton now ranks as the third-greatest 24-hour wind speed intensification for a hurricane in the Atlantic Basin. (Records are based on data since the satellite era began in the 1960s.)
So is trump at Mar a Lego right now standing proudly on the front lawn for this? Is he staying there, "standing his ground" against the "climate hoax"?
Or is he hiding somewhere else safe, with an excuse, like a coward who's actually afraid of climate change?
NOAA changed Milton's heading on Hurricanes.gov to plead with people to listen to evacuation orders.
We'll all be very happy to feel silly if this doesn't go the way it looks like it's going to go. But please for the love of humanity get out of the way of this thing.
I'm gonna tell myself that this is finally bad enough to spur widespread action on global warming as a way of feeling better about it and you can all preemptively shut up with your reality checks.
I'm watching the live stream from WFLA, which is a St. Petersburg station. He's a photo of a bridge leaving the area right now (just after noon on Tuesday Florida time.)
Either most people with cars have evacuated or there are a lot of people who may learn the last lesson of their lives. I hope the former.
Also, the eye apparently will pass right over Cape Canaveral.
This storm has reached 180mph at its peak. Have you ever braced wind at that speed? I've ridden at 120mph on my motorcycle (at a drag strip). The wind, even with a full face helmet and visor, was so extreme that it was hard to hold on and my ears were ringing afterward despite having earplugs in. This insanity corresponds to a few seconds of a category 3 hurricane. This hurricane's winds are like that felt by squids on literbikes doing top speed runs.
I saw some models basically saying how unpredictable this hurricane is to the point that forecasts are all over the map, from landfall as Cat 2 all the way up to it maintaining Cat 5. Most predictions think it will land as a strong Cat 3, but the variance is really high.
Even though Tanya Marunchak’s Belleair Beach home was flooded with more than 4 feet (1.2 meters) of water from Helene, she and her husband were unsure Monday morning if they should evacuate. She wanted to leave, but her husband thought their three-story home was sturdy enough to withstand Milton.
That poor woman. If her husband thinks he’s safe in their “sturdy” home, she should leave him behind.
We're supposed to go to Tampa this weekend for a tattoo. In the grand scheme of things I know, we've got very little to worry about, but I am wondering if we should just cancel now, or if there's a chance of Tampa being back online by Friday.