Sunday Tampa Bay Hurricane Milton Update from Denis Phillips

UPDATE: The Sunday afternoon readings show Milton moving a bit south of Tampa Bay.

Milton has now reached hurricane strength. By the time of its arrival Wednesday, models are predicting a Category 3 hurricane somewhere along Florida's west coast with winds at about 120 miles per hour.

The last time a major hurricane hit Tampa was in October of 1921. Back then there were only 120,000 living in Hillsborough and Pinellas. Just like Milton, that October storm formed in the western Caribbean. It appears Tampa could see its first direct hit in a century. And just like the storm in 1921, right now a Category 3 hurricane is predicted to make landfall somewhere along Florida's west coast.

The Tampa area is right in the middle of the "cone of uncertainty." However today's readings have pushed the center a little bit south.

Over the next few days, listen for regular, reliable updates from Chief Meteorologist Denis Phillips and his ABC Action News team on all Beasley Media Group stations (Q105, 99.5 QYK, WiLD 94.1, 98.7 The Shark and 92.5 MAXIMA). Here are the biggest takeaways from Denis' updates overnight on what will become Hurricane Milton.

Denis says the track for Milton still shows a landfall on Wednesday. The Sunday 5AM update from the National Hurricane Center showed the storm slowly organizing. Denis emphasized overnight that the track may not have changed in the past 24 hours, but that doesn't mean it can't.

Denis says Tuesday will probably be the day we should have a really good idea of how strong the storm will be. The track should be pretty clear by then too. The variable for this storm is that there's some dry air and wind shear that could weaken what is now Tropical Storm Milton. Denis says some models show these two factors could "level off intensity." But other models do not.

Denis Phillips is confident, however, that this will be Florida's storm so we shouldn't expect a wild swing north or south to dodge another bullet like we have for years.

Today will be a great day to get preparations done. The wild weather is a couple days away. Tomorrow should be reasonably calm as well. The National Hurricane Center shows tropical storm force winds arriving late Tuesday. Gather your needs if you plan to ride the storm out. Denis said this morning that if you're not impacted by surge, you probably will not need to evacuate.

Denis says he expects Storm Surge Watches and Hurricane Watches from the National Hurricane Center to be issues at some point today.

Denis warned that power outages could easily last for "days if not weeks" where Milton's landfall occurs. He says it's something you need to keep in mind if you plan to stay in place.

There are several key differences between Hurricane Helene and what will become Hurricane Milton. Milton is much smaller so where landfall happens is important when it comes to wind, rain and surge. With Helene, we saw surge all along our coast. Milton will come at us sideways so inland areas that didn't see much damage from Helene will see a lot of wind and rain with this storm as it crosses the state. But on the positive side of things, surge should only be a big problem for those who live within about 10-15 miles south of landfall.

UPDATE: The Sunday afternoon readings show Milton moving a bit south of Tampa Bay.

ABC Action News weather guru Denis Phillips recently shared a few dozen tips to get you through a hurricane. We've been really lucky so far this hurricane season in Florida, but we know our time will come. When it does, preparation is key. And Denis came up with some tips that might make your experience a lot less miserable. Here are 10 of my favorites. Some are common sense. But others are pretty creative ideas to get through the storm with less stress.

Denis points out that without air conditioning, anything dirty will start to stink your place up! And when the AC goes out, you'll want clean sheets because you'll be sweating a lot!

When you know the storm's coming charge up those laptops, and OLD phones... not just the one you use now. Old phones call still call 911!

Use that water to flush toilets.

Freeze cooked food too. Denis says he loves a hardboiled egg as a snack on that first day without power.

Stuff all your important stuff in a backpack so it's easy to grab in case you need to leave quickly.

If power goes out for a while or systems go down, it'll be good to have some cash on hand.

This is certainly one I wouldn't have thought of doing... but it makes sense. Higher temps in the room will lower the temp in your fridge to preserve those foods longer.

Hit the shower just before the storm's about to hit.

Unplug your electronics because there will likely be power surges.

If the coin stayed on top after the power went out, your food stayed frozen!

I know if you have water to flush your toilet with, you're good, however, not every toilet will flush, even with water, and you might need an additional toilet, especially if you have others staying with you, so the best home made port-o-potty I've ever seen is really easy. Take a bucket, like a Home Depot or Lowes type bucket🪣, fill it with a garbage bag and about 1/4 to 1/2 full with kitty litter. Then take a pool koozy and slice it down one side, half way through. Place the koozy around the top of the bucket and cut it to fit the top of the bucket just right. Put a roll of toilet paper on the handle of the bucket and wha-lah, you've got a relatively comfortable, durable port-o-potty. When it gets full, pull out the garbage bag and replace it with another and fill it about 1/4 to 1/2 with litter and you're all set.