Hurricane Milton has become the second-strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico, closely trailing behind Hurricane Rita. Experts warn that the Category 5 storm is likely to strengthen further as it heads toward Florida.
As of Monday night, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that Milton’s minimum central pressure — a key indicator of hurricane intensity, with lower pressure signaling a stronger storm — was measured at 897 millibars. This puts Milton just behind the record set by Hurricane Rita in 2005, which reached 895 mb.
With a day left before its expected landfall on Wednesday, meteorologists from Fox Weather believe Milton could intensify further. The storm is currently packing winds of 180 mph and is moving toward Tampa Bay, where it threatens to unleash storm surges up to 15 feet. Fox Weather’s hurricane expert, Bryan Norcross, has warned that this could result in “one of the biggest hurricane disasters in history.”
