Hurricane Milton now a Category 5 in the Southern Gulf of Mexico

Hurricane Milton is a Category 5 hurricane and is in the process of rapidly intensifying. Milton will continue intensifying tonight in the Central Gulf. Then it will go through an eyewall replacement cycle. Intense hurricanes can’t maintain their intensity very long, and go through these cycles. When the cycle occurs, the storm weakens, and this will happen later on Tuesday.

Milton will continue to slowly “weaken” through Wednesday as it starts to battle strong wind shear. The forecast calls for Milton to make landfall along the Florida West Coast as a major hurricane (Cat. 3+) by Wednesday night.

An upper air trough will keep moving Milton to the east and prevent any north turn towards Alabama, so we won’t see any major impacts from this storm. That upper air trough will provide shear to Milton, which will drop its category and top wind speeds, but also spread its wind field out further meaning dangerous winds, surge, and surf will extend further out beyond the center of the storm.

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