Expected to reach hurricane status tomorrow. Expected path of the eye to make landfall as a Cat 3 right around St. Petersburg, FL where it will cross the state hitting Tampa and Orlando before exiting the Atlantic side in between Daytona and Melbourne.
The Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater area took a pretty good storm surge hit from Helene so this isn’t great news for that area.
Well that and the hurricane two years ago
Yea Ian and Milton doing a number on the gulf coast of FL.
My patients have a house in Clearwater on a waterway. During Ian they lost their seawall and spent a ridiculous amount of money fixing it. Then Helene brought 3 inches of water into their house. And now Milton is going to destroy the area again.
Yeah…not looking to buy property in Florida at all.
My aunt is in Jacksonville and I’m sure they’ll get weather. Thankfully her condo is up high.
Tracking a little bit south of initial forecasts. Landfall most likely between Bradenton and Sarasota now.
Nope. And I mistyped earlier. My clients are in Bradenton, not Clearwater. I had a hs buddy who lived in Clearwater (phenomenal “other forum” athlete).
Gonna get ugly.
CAT 5 hurricane
The only way this could be worse is if it comes at high tide
They expect it to become a Cat 5 later today. Helene mostly missed heavily populated areas, this one isn’t going to be so kind.
My in-laws are in Polk County, a bit inland but right in the path of this bad boy. MIL isn’t in good health and is s stubborn as they come. I haven’t heard yet but I would not be surprised if she rides this one out.
And thank the Maker my sister left Cape Coral after Ian.
Most experts believe it will rapidly deintensify right near the coast. How much remains to be seen.
The prediction is to degrade from a Cat 5 to a Cat 3 with Tampa right in the crosshairs. The only thing Tampa has going for it is that it is a fast mover. That is bad news for Orlando.
I think the storm surge will still be an issue before it hits land. A cat 4-5 is still going to produce some major issues as it moves closer to the coast. But does remain to be seen how badly.
I was reading reports estimating up to 12ft storm surge right in the path.
As windy noted (he’s an expert on hot air after all) the tide will be a major factor here. The storm’s strength at sea is generating CAT 4-5 wave energy and will push that onshore regardless of wind speed category.
I hated to see what happened to Anna Maria last week. I suspect it will be much worse this time around.
Anna Maria or Ave Maria?
Good luck to everyone in the path, hardly had time to catch your breath from the last one…
And its funny that in one of the Kona/WC threads here recently, someone was advocating for a Florida course as it was the best centrally located for a lot of the world to come to. And that is right of course, but I said that the weather is too unpredictable, and this was just before the last CAT 4 that hit, and folks chimed in that October is a lot more stable…
The typical date for Kona would be this weekend, so I think we can sharpie Florida off the list of contenders…
Not answering until someone acknowledges my brilliant map work. You people disappoint me.
Cheers, mods.
NBC is reporting that a Desantis aide said VP Harris has been trying to reach him and he has not taken her calls. I find that hard to believe given what’s to come.
https://x.com/kamalahq/status/1843405914641997881?s=46&t=f4MKbkOzpNU_o_bXlnvUlQ
Every time a hurricane hits Florida this is the first thing that pops to mind. I’ve worked in insurance for 25 years, we got out of Florida because the risk was just too high.
The state run insurance is the largest insurer left. Having a high saturation of the market is dangerous in the best of times. The state run program was OK after Helene, but this seems like it could bring a lot higher losses.
I don’t think there is an answer short of emptying a lot of people out of the state.
