Hurricane Milton's expected arrival later tonight on Florida's Central Coast has triggered widespread evacuation orders and even caused President Joe Biden to postpone a long-anticipated trip to Europe. The hurricane is projected to hit a populated area around Tampa, but it is also the storm's record-breaking speed and pressure that have alarmed scientists.
Milton has tied in third place for the fastest sustained wind speeds measured in a hurricane since records began. At 180 mph top speeds, the storm shares rank 3 with three other hurricanes, while only five hurricanes were ever measured at higher speeds. Milton also had the fifth lowest pressure ever measured in a hurricane, which while correlated with higher wind speed is a better indicator for a hurricane's destructiveness.
But its not only Milton's record speed and low pressure that have observers worried about the hurricane. It is also how early and quickly it intensified. In just 49 hours, Milton's wind speeds increased from those of a tropical depression (35 mph) to that of a category 5 hurricane (160 mph), making it the fastest such recorded increase. Also, this intensification came quite early after the cyclone hit 50 mph, The New York Times notes. Milton also increased its speed by more than 58 mph in 24 hours, classifying the storm's development as extreme rapid intensification - a phenomenon that is becoming more widespread and is making it harder to predict storms effectively as they can hit faster than expected. Destructive hurricane landfalls with rapid intensification (increase of 35 mph in 24 hours) occurring include Hurricane Ian in 2022 and Hurricane Ida in 2021. As ocean waters warm as a part of climate change, stronger hurricanes and their rapid intensification become more likely.
