As Floridians raced to prepare for and escape the path of Hurricane Milton, an analysis published Monday showed that high sea-surface temperatures fueling the monstrous storm’s rapid intensification were made between 400 and 800 times more likely by the climate crisis.
The research organization Climate Central noted that Milton, which is expected to make landfall in the populous Tampa Bay metropolitan area on Wednesday night, is a “historically powerful” storm that has “undergone extreme rapid intensification over sea surface temperatures warmed by climate change.”
Sea-surface temperatures in the area where Milton has developed “are at or above record-breaking highs,” Climate Central observed, conditions that have allowed the storm to quickly become what the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) described as an “extremely serious threat to Florida,” a state still reeling from the destructive Hurricane Helene.
“Climate change clearly warmed the Gulf waters that fueled Milton’s development, likely supercharging its rapid intensification and making this hurricane much more dangerous,” said Daniel Gilford, a meteorologist at Climate Central. “Fossil fuel pollution is amplifying this threat.”
As New York Times climate reporters Raymond Zhong and Mira Rojanasakul explained Monday, “For a year and a half now, the upper layer of the world’s oceans has been at or near its hottest temperatures on record.”
“The seas absorb most of the extra heat that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases trap near Earth’s surface,” the pair wrote. “So the same human-caused forces that have been bringing abnormal heat to towns, cities, and landscapes are helping to warm the oceans.”
Milton exploded from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in just over 24 hours — intensification that scientists Jeff Masters and Bob Henson called “a spectacular and ominous feat.” The storm has since weakened slightly to a Category 4 as it moves across the Gulf of Mexico, but it is still expected to be devastating.
“It is very likely that Milton will be a highly destructive hurricane costing over $10 billion for Florida — and Milton could end up placing among the costliest U.S. hurricanes on record, depending on the eventual details of landfall,” they wrote Monday. “The risk is also high that Milton will be very deadly if people in low-lying areas do not heed evacuation orders and flee the hurricane.”
Conditions causing Milton were made 400-800x more likely by climate change. This is a climate emergency https://t.co/QKv15CjVwI
— Saul (@saaaauuull) October 8, 2024
Many Florida counties are under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders as Milton barrels toward the state just days after Helene ripped through the region, wreaking deadly havoc across six states.
“Some of the same communities ravaged by Helene are now facing this new threat. Millions of Floridians may be asked to evacuate,” the American Red Cross said in a statement. “Helene and Milton are both examples of how extreme weather is becoming more frequent and intense. In this case, meteorologists say Helene’s intense and far-reaching rainfall — which extended hundreds of miles from the coast — can be attributed to the climate crisis. And Milton is already the third-fastest rapidly intensifying storm on record in the Atlantic, according to more than 40 years of data from the National Hurricane Center.”
The Associated Press noted late Monday that “as evacuation orders were issued, forecasters warned of a possible 8- to 12-foot (2.4- to 3.6-meter) storm surge in Tampa Bay.”
“That’s the highest ever predicted for the region and nearly double the levels reached two weeks ago during Helene,” AP reported, citing a spokesperson with the NHC.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We’re presently working to find 1500 new monthly donors to Truthout before the end of the year.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy