Unbelievable revelations about the terrible power of super storm Milton making landfall in the US

John Morales, a meteorologist in Miami, almost cried on October 7 when he realized the terrible power of Hurricane Milton.

The most destructive storm ever recorded

"We are entering a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis," said some of the world's leading climate scientists, published in the journal BioScience on October 8. On the same day, the US National Hurricane Center updated its warning for Hurricane Milton, which is currently moving into the Gulf of Mexico.

"Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record in West and Central Florida , "

People prepare before Hilton lands in Orlando, Florida. (Photo: Reuters).

Unfortunately, these two statements are related. In terms of weather, the world we live in has entered uncharted territory, as scientists reported in BioScience: 'We have now exposed the planet to climatic conditions that we or our prehistoric relatives have never experienced.' The result is that weather disasters will become increasingly more severe and unpredictable. The new normal is that there will be no new normal.

Milton, from its inception, was an unusual storm.

'It's very rare for a hurricane to form in the western Gulf, move east, and hit the west coast of Florida,' Jonathan Lin, an atmospheric scientist at Cornell, explained to Vox. As Milton moved through the Gulf of Mexico, it encountered waters that were nearly 3.5 degrees Celsius warmer than normal in early October. According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, based in Asheville, North Carolina, water temperature data in the Gulf is currently difficult to obtain because Hurricane Helene, which made landfall less than two weeks ago, damaged the group's offices that provide the data.

This terrifying image shows the power of Hurricane Milton, which emerged as a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend and is expected to hit the west coast of Florida on the evening of October 9 (US time), has been declared a Category 5 storm after rapidly strengthening.

The terrifying power of Hurricane Milton. (Photo: Denver & Front Range Weather).

The scale of the storm surprised many people with wind speeds reaching dangerous levels of nearly 290km/h and sustained gusts of over 321km/h. More than 1 million Floridians were urged to evacuate.

In a post on social media X, meteorologist Noah Bergren shared radar images that revealed Milton as a giant red blob, swallowing the entire map. The red and maroon hues on the weather radar map signaled torrential rainfall, flash flooding, and hurricane conditions.

'I don't know how to meteorologically describe to you the small eye and intensity of this storm. It is approaching the mathematical limit of what the Earth's atmosphere over this ocean can produce,' Bergren wrote .

The storm stunned meteorologists because it was so terrible.

Hurricanes draw energy from the surface waters of the ocean, and the warmer the water, the more energy is available. Hurricane models predicted Milton would strengthen as it moved east, but forecasters were stunned by its development. The storm went from a mild hurricane to a Category 5 hurricane in less than 24 hours. It has since weakened slightly, down to Category 4. A hurricane is said to undergo rapid intensification if its maximum sustained winds increase by 30 knots – about 35 mph – in a day. Rapid intensification occurs when winds increase by 50 knots – about 50 mph – in that time. Milton's maximum sustained winds increased by more than 90 mph in a day.

On October 7, Milton became the third fastest-strengthening Atlantic hurricane when its wind speeds doubled the standard for rapid intensification, moving from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in less than a day.

The Gulf's warm waters, combined with atmospheric conditions, made Milton's rapid intensification "almost certain ," said physical oceanographer Gregory Foltz of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

'This is absolutely incredible,' Zoe Mintz, a meteorologist for KPIX, the CBS affiliate in San Francisco, said on social media about Milton. John Morales, a meteorologist for WTVJ in Miami, was nearly in tears on October 7 when he reported that the storm's barometric pressure had dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours.

'This is horrifying ,' said John Morales.

Dropping air pressure is often a sign that a storm is strengthening , and on October 7, Milton's central pressure reached a near-record low.

Impact of Hurricane Milton upon landfall

Milton is expected to make landfall on the west and central coasts of Florida on the night of October 9 (US time). Tampa, due to its location on the shallow continental shelf, could be the city most affected by storm surge and could be directly hit by the storm. In recent years, sea levels along Florida's Gulf Coast have risen at twice the global average rate over the past decade, with sea levels rising about 5 inches (12.7 centimeters). This means that storm surges in the area will be much more severe. Milton's total storm surge could reach as high as 13 feet (4 meters). Much of the area, meanwhile, remains littered with debris left by Hurricane Helene.

Tampa Bay, which hasn't been directly hit by a major hurricane since 1921, is ranked as the most vulnerable place in the U.S. to storm surge in a 2015 report from risk modeling firm Karen Clark & ​​Co. The underwater terrain in the area can act as a giant funnel, channeling and holding floodwaters in the bay. The city's sprawling urban development over the past century has put many residents and coastal structures at risk. The metropolitan area is home to more than 3 million people.

Local officials in Pinellas County, which includes the cities of Clearwater and St. Petersburg, called the predicted storm surge 'unsurvivable' and urged residents to heed mandatory evacuation orders.

Mexico was caught by surprise last year when a weak tropical storm in the Pacific suddenly became a powerful Category 5 hurricane called Hurricane Otis, just hours before it made landfall in western Mexico and killed dozens of people in the Acapulco metropolitan area.

The fastest-strengthening Atlantic hurricane on record was Wilma, a Category 5 hurricane when it struck the Yucatan Peninsula in October 2005, followed by Hurricane Felix in 2007.

Unfortunately, it is too late to prevent Milton-like horrors from happening. 'We will see more extreme weather events in the years ahead,' the BioScience report states. The best the US and the world can do now is try to mitigate the damage by drastically reducing fossil fuel emissions and building more resilient infrastructure.