2024-10-11 00:23:00
At least nine people lost their lives due to the hurricane Miltonaccording to the latest report published Thursday by local authorities in Florida. The damage caused by this meteorological phenomenon, marked by rain and intense winds, and which continues to affect the state, is still being assessed, although it cannot be considered completely overcome.
Milton landed on the coast of Florida on Wednesday night, causing the closure of ten airports in the state and the cancellation of over a thousand flights scheduled for Thursday.
Considered one of the most powerful hurricanes of recent decades, Milton threatens to cause devastation across much of Florida. Hundreds of thousands of residents have evacuated the peninsula in an attempt to escape extreme conditions, including tornadoes, torrential rain, flooding and winds that could reach 175 mph.
The formation of the hurricane
Hurricanes that strike the southern United States usually form in the Caribbean Sea. There they accumulate energy from the evaporation of warm water from tropical seas. and form important cloud bands that lead to hurricanes.
In case of Miltonthe storm began developing west of the Caribbean Sea on September 26. In that area it began to consolidate and gain strength, which is why it was already considered a tropical storm. Milton on October 5, when it was still in the western Caribbean Sea. Its transformation into a hurricane occurred in just two days, when it formed a small eye that made it reach category 2, with winds of around 160-170 km/h..
The magnitude of hurricanes is classified according to the Saffir-Simpson scale, based on the intensity of their winds. From category 1, with an intensity between 119 and 153 km/h, they can arrive reach category 5, of maximum intensity and catastrophic damage, with sustained wind gusts exceeding 250 km/h.
The intensification of Milton
Once it turns into a hurricane, Milton It skirted the Yucatan Peninsula without causing serious bodily injury and its trajectory took it directly across the Florida Peninsula.. Crossing the eastern Caribbean, the cyclone strengthened to category 5, with maximum winds of around 285 km/h and minimum pressures of 897 millibars. These are the most serious figures of the last twenty years, reached only by the destructive hurricanes Wilma and Rita in the dramatic season of 2005. These magnitudes place Milton as one of the fastest-intensifying hurricanes in history when it was barely a Category 1 storm on the morning of October 7 and reached Level 5 on the night of the same day.
The predicted trajectory of Milton It would reach land in the center of the Florida peninsula, a few miles south of Tampa and heading northeast, then head toward the vicinity of Orlando on its journey to the Atlantic Ocean. This prediction triggered the high alert, especially in the Tampa Bay area, which it caused Millions of people have fled the risk area due to the request for mass evacuation by the authorities of several counties in the area. Despite the threat, many inhabitants of the region remained in their homesa decision that can have dramatic consequences.
Arrival in Florida
As it approached the Florida peninsula, the hurricane gradually lost intensity. On its way to the coast, the hurricane made landfall on Siesta Key with category 3 and winds slightly below 200 km/h. As it crossed the Peninsula, it was expected to reduce its magnitude further, in a weakening process that could make it fall into category 1, although it will cause severe flooding and storms across the entire territory.
In its future trajectory, this is expected Milton It leaves the territory of Florida heading towards the Bermuda archipelago, where it should have already been downgraded to a tropical storm, after having unloaded much of its intensity on the United States. Milton It will be the third hurricane that Florida suffers this season after Helene and Debby, a figure with few precedents and which warns of the possible consequences of climate change on the intensification of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico region.
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