Hurricane Milton

[KenAdams]

Couldn't see a thread for this in Weather.

This looks like it's going to be really bad. Helene has already caused enough devastion in the area and the poor people of Tampa are in for a lot more today.

Some people are refusing to evacuate from what I understand but the Mayor of Tampa has warned if you don't evacuate you die.

I can't imagine how scary it must be for them.

If anyone is interested in live webcams there are some here:

The wind speeds and the speed it's travelling at are two different things. The app I have from NHC says it's travelling around 17mph

This looks like a useful map for checking where the storm surge would reach (set to 3-5m)

www.floodmap.net

Eh- "world events often go unnoticed unless there is a Brit involved"? You mean the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the world service, don't cover any news unless a Brit is involved. Are you thinking about the U.S news? We have so much coverage of the world news including lots on the U.S. I have an interest in politics so I'm interested in the U.S election but many people complain about the endless coverage on the U.S election including on places where you'd expect coverage like Radio 4.

Anyway, I do hope that anyone impacted by this is as safe as possible.

The storm spins round and around. Those wind speeds are mostly in the "round and round" direction.

While spinning, the whole thing also moves acrossways. This speed of movement of the storm as a whole is much lower than the spinny speed.

Somewhat ironically, FOX news and their localised broadcasters really come into their own for hurricanes. They really are brilliant for it.

Ha I thought the same!

Wind speed is different from movement speed. The storm is currently moving at 14 mph. I'm near the east coast of FL near where Milton is due to exit and we've been getting the outer bands for a couple of hours--rain and some wind that comes in waves as the spiral arms of the hurricane rotate.

Thank you. I just literally saw some satellite images and thought this was probably it. I obviously knew tornadoes spun around but hadn’t appreciated that hurricanes did too.

Honestly they are invaluable in giving out information to locals and reporting.

The BBC doesn't have many US reporters at all. For US coverage of anything they usually actually use their affiliates in CBS news.

The BBC USED to have many more of its own correspondents but now doesn't. So this has an impact on the amount of coverage we get here for us (or wider world) news coverage.

If you want to know what's happening on the ground in the US for hurricanes, it's really not worth even bothering with the BBC for this reason when you can look up the local Fox news channel - which unlike their big brother, tends to focus on grassroots events rather than pushing politics.

Definitely, we should stop buying all the crap from Temu! The world will be a better place.

it's the top story on the BBC news now so not sure why people think it's not being covered massively

When this thread was made it wasn't.

Isn't that because it's 5 hours behind though- it was the headline news this morning.

A pp mentioned it but insurance will be an early indicator of climate pressures

Thus may take some smaller providers and also sections will find it increasingly harder to get insurance

@Goldenbear the size and potential for damage of this storm has been known for a lot longer though

Yes but I suppose sadly the BBC has had lots to cover in the last week that is all very alarming.

Ron DeSantis giving an update now. It sounds as though the authorities are as prepared for this as possible. He’s pushing the shelter option for those who have not evacuated.

Yes I’m listening to the briefing now. Lots of space in shelters still. Free buses and ubers, etc to the shelters. I can see though why people would be scared to go to a shelter, the conditions in Houston at the superdome sounded horrendous and dangerous.

When the thread was posted, it was the first item on the BBC website - that was yesterday. I posted today, but there was plenty of coverage yesterday.

Hurricane's rotate

I’ve been following the news about Milton with absolute dread, can’t imagine how scared people in its path must be, particularly coming so soon after Helene. We were in Fort Lauderdale only this summer and usually fly into Tampa. Such a beautiful part of the world. However, I also know that the state is doing everything it can to protect everyone. Thank you to the Florida residents who have shared and confirmed the plans. I hope and pray everyone remains safe. God willing, we hope to be there next September.

We are one of those ‘idiots’ that choose to holiday in Florida during hurricane season. We have been doing so for over 20 years and won’t be changing our plans. We love WDW and are DVC owners. In that time we’ve been caught in 3 hurricanes - Charley (2004), Irma (2017) and Dorian (2019) plus plenty of tropical storms. We figure those are decent odds. For Charley we spent a night at a local shelter as we were ordered to evacuate from our villa. That was scary and the devastation afterwards was truly heartbreaking. For Irma we were very lucky to be at our home resort at Disney and were very well looked after. For Dorian we were at Portofino Bay at Universal and again very well taken care of, even though it luckily did not make landfall in Orlando. Disney and Universal hotels are some of the safest places to be during hurricanes. We met many locals who checked in to Disney and Universal hotels during hurricanes because they can guarantee power, food and entertainment.

On all three occasions flights were cancelled and or airports shut. My SIL was due to fly out there today but BA have rebooked her to fly on Friday as airports are rightly shut. Disney stopped taking new hotel bookings earlier this week to allow them to focus on existing guests. Parks will be shut but please remember that American labour laws are very different to here, if people can’t/ don’t work there is very little safety net.

I appreciate that it may seem trivial to many to be concerned about their holiday but I can understand. People save for years to afford it, it is possible to be concerned about more than one thing at the same time. Tourism is also a major part of Florida’s economy.

"it's the top story on the BBC news now so not sure why people think it's not being covered massively"

It was in the news even yesterday when the thread started but Helene wasn't reported much at all despite the devastation in NC, TN, SC. Today it is top story though as the hurricane nears

I have been following Hurricane Milton news in the press since Sunday/Monday - the Guardian have been doing live updates since yesterday.

The visuals from space are just mind blowing. The power of nature is incredible.

Yy to naming all the storms after fossil fuel companies. I know hurricanes existed before, of course they did, but the intensity and devastation is only going to increase over the coming decades.