Milton’s reclassification to a Category 3 storm suggests it is weakening, but the scale accounts only for wind speed and not hurricane size, storm surge heights, or rainfall—which are all catastrophically large.
But while Milton’s wind speed was reduced, the inundation of water forecast for Florida remained just as massive as before. Tampa, a city of 3 million that hasn’t taken such a direct hit in a century, faces a storm surge of 10 to 15 feet, along with nearby St. Petersburg and Sarasota, according to the National Hurricane Center. This comes less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene pushed an 8-foot surge into the area.
And as climate change supercharges hurricanes, which are fueled by warm water and air, the sufficiency of the system's five categories is increasingly coming into question. After Milton’s wind speed skyrocketed from a 60 mph tropical storm to a 180 mph Category 5 hurricane in only 36 hours, experts are again discussing whether a Category 6 needs to be added. Milton’s enormous storm surge has also highlighted the growing danger from water.
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