Hurricane Milton has restrengthened into a Category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds at 165 mph. Early this morning, it had dipped to a 150 mph Cat. 4.
Milton’s barometric pressure has also continued to drop this afternoon after rising earlier today. At 2 p.m. pressure fell to 918 mb, down from 929. At about 5 p.m. PT, the pressure was down even more to 902 mb. Barometric pressure is thought to be the most accurate predictor of a storm’s strength and destructiveness.
Currently, Milton is again approaching its nadir of 897 millibars, which it reached on Monday night. That’s the fifth-lowest reading ever seen in the Atlantic Basin. The other storms in that group are Rita in 2005 at 895 mb, the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 at 892 mb, Gilbert in 1988 at 888 mb and Wilma in 2005 at 882 mb.
The storm’s path has also wobbled slightly, with advisories now bringing it in south of Tampa Bay and closer to Sarasota Florida, which could save the Tampa Bay area (population 3 million) from a direct hit. Of course, the path will likely shift yet again before landfall sometime tomorrow night.
As a result, the National Hurricane Service has adjusted its storm surge warning, with greater values trending southward toward Port Charlotte, Fort Meyers and Naples — though Tampa still remains in the area of highest predicted surge, at 10-15 feet.