Hurricane Milton expected to make landfall late tonight

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Bernie Rayno and Alex DaSilva update Hurricane Milton's expected landfall in Florida to late tonight at 11 p.m. local time, as the storm accelerates towards the Sunshine State.

Transcript

00:00We've seen a lot of changes with Milton. I think one of the primary changes is that acceleration

00:07to the northeast. Yeah, the storm is starting to be picked up by a dip in the jet stream. It's

00:12really starting to accelerate right now, but also what we're seeing is the eye really filled in. We

00:17don't have that clear view all the way down to the ocean anymore. The eye is filled in. The winds

00:22have come down a little bit, but I think the wind field has started to get bigger as well. The storm

00:26is likely undergoing an eye wall replacement cycle, and so when that happens, the wind field

00:31expands. So we might see the winds continue to come down a little bit, but the wind field is

00:35going to expand and expand. The other notice, listen, these hurricanes don't move in straight

00:42lines. They wobble back and forth. We'll show you the water vapor loop. I want you to watch it

00:47closely. You can clearly see a little bit of a wobble north, and that's important. Miles are

00:54going to matter. You mentioned that before for the landfall location near the Tampa area, but

01:00certainly you're seeing it too that move to the north. Yeah, that certainly concerns me. We're

01:05going to have to watch to see if this bobble to the north is a trend or if it's just a little bit

01:09of a wiggle, because if it is a trend to the north, we have to be certainly concerned that

01:14this storm can still come in around the St. Petersburg area, which again would be the worst

01:18case scenario for the Tampa Bay area. But you can see on this image as well, look how fast those

01:23clouds are moving north of the storm right there. The storm is moving into an area of higher wind

01:27shear, and that should allow the winds to keep coming down. But like I said, the wind field is

01:32going to be expanding. The storm is going to grow much, much larger over the next couple of hours.

01:37I want to take you out to the radar. And again, what we're also seeing here, though, is lightning

01:42in the northeastern quadrant. Explain the significance of that lightning in the northeastern

01:47quadrant of the eyewall of Milton. Yeah, when we typically see lightning, that's an indication of

01:52a strengthening storm or at least a storm that is leveling off. So I don't expect the winds to come

01:56down very much. This is likely to still be a Category four hurricane once it makes landfall

02:02later today. But the forward speed, it's moving a little bit faster. So that would give it less

02:06time to lose wind intensity before making landfall. So we are still calling for a Category four

02:12hurricane later on today. Yeah. And there's that landfall anywhere from Indian Rocks to South

02:18Venice Beach. Devastating storm surge on the southern side. AccuWeather lead hurricane expert

02:24Alex Da Silva. Alex, thanks for joining us here on AccuWeather Early.

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