Hurricane Milton Shows Slight Shift South
At the moment, it’s a little bit of good news for our listeners in the Tampa area. The weather team at ABC Action News says the observations from the hurricane hunters and the readings from the National Hurricane Center Sunday have moved Hurricane Milton’s track a bit more south of Tampa Bay… for now.
Denis Phillips warns us though that we are not “out of the woods” yet. He says the GFS model still shows Hurricane Milton on a more northerly path. Denis also reminds us that hurricanes can change track 6 hours before landfall. Given that we’re still 3 days away from Milton’s visit, Denis says “That’s a long time out to try and pinpoint landfall within 20 or 30 miles.”
With the 5pm update from the National Hurricane Center, models still show disagreement. Some keep the storm south of Tampa Bay. But a few still have it north of us. Denis Phillips says Milton is now stronger with winds of 85 mph and will continue to get stronger tonight. It’ll approach the west coast of Florida Wednesday as a major hurricane.
As Floridians, we know how this story goes. There’s still plenty of time for Hurricane Milton to move north again too. But for now, if the track with landfall going south of Tampa Bay holds steady, our listening area in wouldn’t see the worst of the wind, rain and surge than if we were south of the hurricane’s landfall.
What moved the track south?
ABC Action News meteorologist Greg Dee says that hurricane hunter aircraft earlier today found that Milton’s center is south of where they originally thought. What they also noticed is that Milton seems to be heading east/southeast instead of just east. Since we’re still 3 days away from landfall, that moves Milton’s eventual track quite a bit. This track if it stays on this course would really spare Tampa Bay from the worst of Milton’s wrath.
Greg says spaghetti models have followed suit and are also adjusting to the south. While this is positive news for us in Tampa Bay, it’s now more reason for our friends in Naples and Fort Myers to prepare.
When will we know for sure where Hurricane Milton is going?
But as it was said already, these storm tracks are never set in stone this far out. Greg and Denis Phillips have both said they are looking to Tuesday as that point where we’ll really have a good idea of how strong Hurricane Milton will be… and where exactly it’s heading.
Cancellations
Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco County Schools will all be closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The Tampa Bay Lightning even called off their last preseason game scheduled for tomorrow night. That game was a rescheduled game that was pushed back because of Hurricane Helene.
