AccuWeather forecasters have adjusted their map showing the projected path of Milton as it barrels toward Florida.
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00:00From central Florida, we're going to go back to the AccuWeather Global Weather Center,
00:02where we're joined now by AccuWeather hurricane expert and senior director of forecast operations
00:07Dan Dupont with the latest track of Hurricane Milton. And Dan, I know that we agonize over
00:12the details because they matter, and we want to nail the forecast. So we have a little bit
00:18of new information regarding our eyepath for Hurricane Milton. Yeah, Jeff, we do. And we've
00:25taken a look at the satellite here with Milton, and we are definitely going to be experiencing
00:33the significant impacts coming up as we head into Wednesday. But the main story here is the
00:37continued intensity at Category 5 status of Milton here this evening. It has re-strengthened in
00:42Category 5, very rare for a hurricane to do that. And we have made an update to our eyepath in the
00:48last just 15 minutes or so to predict that at this point, the best chance for landfall being
00:54basically near the mouth of Tampa Bay. We shifted it south just slightly the center of this eyepath,
00:58but you can see that the window here, which is also sort of the range of possibilities,
01:01we've opened that window a bit to the south more than it's open to the north, meaning that we think
01:06that if there's going to be a deviation either way, it's more likely that Milton would make
01:10landfall just south of where we currently are predicting it than just north. And that really
01:14matters in this case because of the shape of the coast and how the track of the storm influences
01:20the storm surge risk here in the case of Milton. And we need to be prepared in case it takes that
01:25northern option, but it has been a mildly good trend, but again one that we can't fully commit
01:32to quite at this point. So again, a slight jog southward and you said our new point of landfall
01:37right over the enclosure, the mouth of Tampa Bay. And Dan, this storm has again done some pretty
01:44amazing things in that it strengthened below 910 millibars twice. We had an eyewall replacement
01:49cycle last night, but then we've done it again and actually we did something that has never been done
01:54in the modern era of satellites for the Atlantic Basin here today with a 905 millibar deepening
02:00twice. Yeah, this is a pretty rare storm as you can see. There's not too many storms on this list.
02:04One of the strongest storms on record in the Atlantic Basin and in terms of becoming a category
02:09five twice. Most storms don't do that. It takes a lot of energy to be able to do that and that's
02:13very unusual here with Milton. That's one of the concerns we're so, a reason we're so concerned
02:17about it. Taking a look here at how it's approaching the coast. Worst conditions in the Florida
02:21Peninsula will begin, really go downhill during the day Wednesday with the core of the impacts
02:25late Wednesday night. All right, well we appreciate your insight there.
02:29Dan Depodman and AccuWeather's Global Severe Weather Center.