Less than 10 days after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida, the state is preparing to respond to Hurricane Milton - another potentially destructive storm with the intensity of a Category 3 storm on the 5-point Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale.
The latest hurricane information from the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that tropical storm Milton formed in the western Gulf of Mexico on the morning of October 5, just hours after becoming a tropical depression.
According to the NHC's hurricane forecast, the 13th named storm of the 2024 hurricane season forms earlier than average - usually around October 25.
Milton is expected to strengthen and bring life-threatening impacts to parts of Florida's west coast next week.
With very low vertical wind shear and extremely warm sea surface temperatures, Milton could rapidly intensify over the next few days, becoming a major hurricane within 72 hours, expected to make landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm, bringing the strongest wind near the center of the storm with winds of 185 km/h.
To prepare for the storm, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 35 counties on October 5.
CBS News forecasters said Milton will move slowly on the night of October 6 before accelerating and intensifying on October 7-8.
South Florida will face a "double fist" with the system, starting on Oct. 6 with a weaker low pressure area moving through the area and lasting through Oct. 7, bringing the first major rains to South Florida.
The second " punch" will be Hurricane Milton, which is expected to make landfall on the afternoon of October 9, bringing heavy rain and strong winds.
Currently, South Florida's main threat is still the risk of flooding due to rain and rainwater, with the possibility of rainfall from 100-200mm across the area.
The threat of Hurricane Milton comes after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida on September 26, destroying an entire 800km with catastrophic flooding, strong winds and power outages, killing at least 227 people in six states.
Helene is one of the biggest storms the Gulf of Mexico has seen in the past century.
