Hurricane Milton is due to make landfall in Florida as early as later today, and the threat it poses to the Sunshine State hasn’t dimmed even a bit. Despite rapid fluctuation (resulting in an unpredictability that, at the end of the day, only makes Milton more disturbing), the storm has stayed strong in and around Category 4 and 5, the latter of which houses a peak wind speed of 180 miles per hour.
It is not, of course, simply the wind that Florida needs to worry about here. A new graphic straight from The Weather Channel has offered a ballpark of what a 15-foot storm surge (one of Milton’s expected events) could look like at ground zero, and “horrifying” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
As you can see, a three-foot storm surge — in which deep water floods the affected area — is capable of preventing evacuation on its own. A six-foot storm surge, which would tower over most heads and render many residences almost entirely uninhabitable, is even harder to process the severity of. But not until the graphic expands to a nine-footer (which the meteorologist describes as “practically not survivable”) and you realize it still has another potential six feet to go, does the gravity of the situation hit home like never before.
One X user chimed in with their lived experience with an 18-foot flood, describing what they lost in the storm before offering up photos of his house. Apparently, he had to protect his family by getting them on a raft.
At the time of writing, evacuation orders continue to be issued to the residents of Florida as highways and exits usher in countless evacuees and their essentials. The state of Georgia, for its part, has opened up the Atlanta Motor Speedway campground for displaced Floridians, and is preparing for the effects the edges of Milton could bring its way.
And while it may be true that storm surges are measured by their height above sea level (i.e. the flooding won’t necessarily be 15 feet from the ground up, and instead start a bit lower), Florida’s relative vertical proximity to the ocean means the brunt of the storm surge’s effects are likely to be endured.
Indeed, it’s no wonder John Morales — the meteorologist who went viral on TikTok for his on-air emotional response to Milton’s encroachment — responded to the forecast the way he did; millions of lives are about to change overnight, and the damage will be biblical.
Of course, Milton foreshadowed all of this damage with the damage it’s done to the record books. With a central pressure floor of 897 hectopascals (hPa), Milton clocks in as the fifth-strongest Atlantic hurricane on record, below 2005’s Rita and Wilma (895 and 882 hPa, respectively), 1935’s Labor Day hurricane (892 hpa) and 1988’s Gilbert (888 hPa). Milton has also become one of the six hurricanes in recorded history to drop beneath 900 hPa of central pressure; a distinguishment it shares with the aforementioned storms, as well as 1980’s Allen (899 hPa).
We wish all those affected by Hurricane Milton a safe passage out of Florida, and our thoughts are with you in this devastating time.
