Around the end of September, a tropical wave moving through the Caribbean interacted with a broad area of rotation over central America to produce a large area of disturbed weather. This disturbance moved northwest into the Bay of Campeche over the next couple of days. After that, it remained mostly stationary just off the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico. On October 4, the system suddenly coalesced quickly around a nascent center of circulation. The next morning, it was designated Tropical Depression Fourteen.
The depression had low shear and warm water to work with and quickly strengthened into Tropical Storm Milton during the afternoon of the 5th. The system was rather small at first, but this allowed it to ramp up quickly, especially once an inner core became established early on October 6. Milton rapidly intensified into a hurricane that day. The system embarked on an unusual motion just south of east across the Gulf of Mexico. Overnight, the storm began a historic burst of strengthening. At 0900 UTC on October 7, the storm was upgraded to a category 2. Just two hours later it became a major hurricane, and after another two hours, a strong category 4. A little before 1600 UTC, it reached category 5 intensity. At 0000 UTC October 8, peaked at a historic intensity of 180 mph sustained winds and a central pressure of 897 mb. This was the lowest pressure recorded in an Atlantic hurricane since 2005 and made Milton the fifth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record by minimum pressure. The cyclone's ascent from tropical depression to category 5 hurricane took 49 hours, the fastest such a feat had ever been observed.
The storm remained incredibly compact throughout this explosion of intensification. A small but very symmetric eye had first appeared the morning of the 7th, and it contracted further after Milton reached category 5 strength until it was under 5 miles in diameter by that evening. The center was surrounded by an area of exceptionally cold cloud tops, the likes of which are seldom seen in the Atlantic basin. The storm's heading took it eastward across the Gulf just north of the Yucatan peninsula, and close enough to bring tropical storm conditions to the northern coastline. Overnight, Milton underwent an eyewall replacement cycle as the tiny eye filled in and the original eyewall was slowly replaced by a secondary larger one. This caused the storm's maximum winds to weaken back to category 4 and minimum pressure to rise temporarily, but it did expand the area of hurricane force winds.
The system recovered well on October 8 though and regained category 5 strength during the afternoon. By that time, Milton was on a faster east-northeastward path toward the central coast of western Florida. It reached an impressive secondary peak intensity of 165 mph winds and a minimum pressure of 902 mb that evening. Fortunately, shear began to increase quickly after that time and the cyclone weakened fairly rapidly from that point. It was down to a category 4 by early on the 9th, and became increasingly disheveled on satellite imagery. Nevertheless, Milton was still at category 3 strength when it made landfall in Florida that evening. The storm's days as a powerful hurricane led to significant storm surge impact, and its quick movement brought wind damage across a swath of the state. Milton was still a category 1 hurricane when it emerged on the Atlantic side of Florida early on October 10. By that time, the storm was interacting with a frontal zone and losing tropical characteristics. It became post-tropical early that evening and continued to gradually spin down as it pushed generally eastward out to sea.
The image above shows Milton near peak intensity on October 7. The cyclone exhibited a "pinhole eye" of only 5 miles across, a feature common for the Atlantic's top few strongest hurricanes. Milton's lowest pressure reading of 897 mb was the lowest observed in the Atlantic for 19 years.
Milton achieved category 5 status twice en route to a category 3 landfall in Florida.
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