How bad will Hurricane Milton be?

‘Astronomical’; the ‘strongest storm in a century’; ‘nearing the mathematical limit for a storm’ – the increasingly fraught descriptions of Hurricane Milton are coming through thick and fast even before it has struck Florida. But how strong is Milton really? The hurricane has been recorded as a category five hurricane – the highest classification – with maximum wind speeds of 180 mph. But it is still out to sea. By the time it makes landfall at the end of the week it is forecast to fall to category three. As for the ‘strongest storm in a century’, it may turn out to be the strongest hurricane to hit Tampa Bay in Florida in 100 years, but not elsewhere. Tampa Bay is not usually struck by hurricanes, which tend to hit the east coast of Florida, rather than the west.

There are different ways of measuring the strength of a hurricane. On maximum measured wind speed Milton in the strongest since Hurricane Rita in 2005.