Dangerous, historic Hurricane Milton will grow before hitting Florida

Hurricane Milton continues to grow in size as it heads toward landfall on Florida's west coast during the latter half of the day on Wednesday.

The storm explosively intensified into a scale-topping Category 5 storm on Monday, becoming the fifth-most intense storm ever measured in the Atlantic basin in terms of minimum central air pressure.

A reconnaissance flight into the storm on Monday evening found that its pressure had dropped to 897 mb shortly before 8:00 p.m. EDT, which is lower than every Atlantic hurricane ever observed except for just four others.

The storm has since undergone an eyewall replacement cycle, a process through which a newer, larger eye forms and replaces the old one. Hurricanes tend to both weaken and grow in size during an eyewall replacement cycle. 

A favorable environment and very warm waters have allowed Milton to restrengthen a bit on Tuesday. Forecasters found that the storm had maximum winds of 155 mph on Tuesday afternoon.

Milton is expected to grow in size before slamming into Florida's west-central coast as a major hurricane on Wednesday evening.

Despite the storm's maximum winds decreasing slightly before landfall, this will remain a large and powerful storm and its destructive storm surge is essentially baked in at this point.

A wide swath of the Florida peninsula is under a hurricane warning, including Tampa, Orlando, Daytona Beach, and Fort Myers. Damaging winds will spread far inland as Milton makes landfall. Long-lasting power outages are likely, especially in areas that experience the eyewall.

While damaging winds, flooding rains, and a risk for tornadoes will extend far away from the center of the storm and affect most of Florida, the precise track of the eye will make all the difference where the very worst storm surge occurs.

A track over or just north of Tampa Bay would expose the region to a storm surge not seen in living memory. A track just south would push the worst surge toward Charlotte Harbor and the Caloosahatchee River. It's a matter of a few miles in either direction.

Please heed evacuation orders if you're told to go. Time is running out. 

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