Hurricane Milton continues to churn in the hot Gulf of Mexico waters, with windspeeds reaching 160mph on Wednesday morning.
It returned to a Category 5 storm on Tuesday night, with the Tampa Bay area most at risk of Milton’s destructive wrath. There could be a horrifying 15ft storm surge on Florida’s west coast, sparking widespread floods and dangerous projectiles.
There are a number of livestream webcams across the Floridian coast, including in Clearwater, Key West, and Tampa itself.
You can follow all of the horrifying scenes across the state as Milton makes landfall from Wednesday night, until early Friday morning.
The hurricane’s arrival follows just days after Helene made landfall in Florida, which killed more than 220 people. Helene came ashore about 150 miles north of Tampa in the Florida Panhandle, and still managed to cause drowning deaths due to surges that were about 5-8ft (1.5-2.5m) above normal tide levels.
With Milton, forecasters warn of a possible 10-15ft (3-4.5m) storm surge in Tampa Bay. It is the highest surge ever predicted for that location and has led to evacuation orders for communities all along the coast.
The National Hurricane Center warned that Milton is “expected to be a dangerous major hurricane” when it reaches the Florida coast. “A northeastward motion with some increase in forward speed is expected” through Wednesday night, the hurricane center said.
President Joe Biden, who postponed an overseas trip so he could remain at the White House to monitor Milton, warned that it “could be one of the worst storms in 100 years to hit Florida”. In just 46.5 hours, Milton went from forming as a tropical storm with 40mph winds to a top-of-the-charts Category 5 hurricane.
With the storm expected to remain fairly strong as it crosses Florida, hurricane warnings were extended early Tuesday to parts of the state’s east coast.
Milton is just the latest system in a storm season that scientists say is the weirdest they’ve ever seen. Forecasters were predicting a busy Atlantic hurricane season before it started, and it began when Beryl became the earliest storm on record to reach Category 5 status.
Tampa International Airport halted flights Tuesday morning, posting on X that it is not a shelter for people or their cars. And nearby St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport said it was in a mandatory evacuation zone and closed after the last flight left Tuesday. It said all flights were cancelled Wednesday and Thursday.
Orlando International Airport – the nation’s seventh busiest, and Florida’s most trafficked – said it would cease operations Wednesday morning. And at least three major theme parks – Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld – will close, with the latter two also remaining closed on Thursday and Disney likely to follow suit.