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Hurricane Milton
Seeing engagement baiters across social media that were claiming the loss of the eye meant Milton was strengthening and widening, and is record breaking, angered me enough to write this, to maybe dispel some fears.
Loss of the eye, cause it is reforming, makes it weaker not stronger. The eye closing up dropped Milton from a Cat 5 with 180 mph sustained winds, down to a Cat 4, with 155 mph sustained winds. It was expected that it would re-strengthen back extreme winds after the new eye formed, but it never did. It hasn’t strengthened beyond 165 mph winds again, and will continue to weaken at this point.
There is an incoming wind sheer expected to hit the hurricane from the North. It will weaken it quickly to a Cat 3 before it hits us, however, it won’t be a Cat 3 across the state. Orlando can expect Cat 2–1 or less, and it goes down further after that.
The highest sustained winds are part of the eye wall, not the whole shebang. That is the part that is currently a Cat 4. The outer bands are weaker, though. Yes, the eye wall will be a Cat 4 when the outermost area of Milton first makes landfall, but that outermost area will not be as strong. It will be Tropical Storm force winds out there, and once those bands hit land, it will begin to weaken the storm overall, so the eye will be a Cat 3 when it hits land, itself.
