Milton rapidly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane late Monday morning.

Within hours, Milton strengthened to a Category 2, then a Category 3, then a Category 4 and finally a Category 5.

Milton now ranks as the third-greatest 24-hour wind speed intensification for a hurricane in the Atlantic Basin. (Records are based on data since the satellite era began in the 1960s.)

  • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    Good thing they removed climate change from being a thing discussed in the legislature. That should fix things.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven wrote a book called Lucifer’s Hammer about a comet hitting the Earth. There’s a part where all the surfers in the ocean off of L.A. know they’re going to die, so they decide to ride the tsunami and get taken out one by one as they get smashed into buildings.

            • grue@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Unfortunately, at least from videos I’ve seen of the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Fukushima tsunami, tsunamis don’t really “break” like good surfing waves and instead seem to act more like a large swell that keeps going instead of ebbing.

              (A mega-tsunami from a comet impact might be so large it would act differently, though.)

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                I’ll be honest, it’s one of the least believable parts of a book which overall reads as quite plausible, but it’s a fun chapter. Neither of the authors are/were scientists, so they were bound to get some things wrong. It was also written almost 50 years ago, so I’m guessing the science they did work with has been supplanted in a lot of ways since then.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                Honestly, the whole book would make a great miniseries. Probably too much for just one movie.

                Too bad Larry Niven is and Jerry Pournelle was such right-wing assholes, because their published some great stuff.

          • catloaf@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            No. There’s always a bunch of surfers that go out for hurricane waves. I assume some have a death wish.

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      6 months ago

      I’m surprised DeSantis hasn’t required that the storm surge be listed in meters to make it appear smaller and less of an issue.

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    6 months ago

    So is trump at Mar a Lego right now standing proudly on the front lawn for this? Is he staying there, “standing his ground” against the “climate hoax”?

    Or is he hiding somewhere else safe, with an excuse, like a coward who’s actually afraid of climate change?

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    6 months ago

    Good thing DeSantis won’t pick up the phone from Biden or Harris to start funding relief.

  • TriflingToad@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Currently in my house in Florida, where I am looks to be not on the direct path but not completely free. Hurricanes can move a lot, especially when they get on land and staet losing speed.

    Once we evacuated 5 hours in a car with all our animals (at the time 2 big sweaty dogs) in a car that wasnt even the size of a minivan. We packed everything we needed just in case. Once we got inside the hotel we booked we took a ~2 hour nap and upon checking the storm again it had moved to come right to where the hotel is. We then had to drive 5 hours BACK home where we began.

    Anyhoo, wish us luck! I don’t wanna evacuate with 4 cats and a large dog haha

    UPDATE: 5:30 10/8
    I got 5+ ‘amber alerts’ today. They just wouldn’t stop haha

    • strawberrysocial@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I wish you luck trifling toad🤞 Escaping a situation with just people is difficult, with additional animals makes it so much more stressful. Especially cats since they have to be put in a crate and need a litter box etc.

  • Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I guess their god doesn’t like florida. I wonder why?

    On a more serious note I really hope all the decent people of florida the best of luck. To the rest I hope you only get thoughts and prayers.

    • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Floridas gonna be the next Atlantis, a mysterious land that vanished under the ocean from which tales came of strange people comitting outragous deeds. Future historians will see the tales of the mighty ‘Florida Men’ and assume it was some kind of myth.

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        6 months ago

        More like Doggerland a place having verifiably existed, and which would hold answers to what man’s primitive ancestors were doing, but which we don’t really go to look at, because studying shit that’s underwater is expensive and we’re not that interested.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    NOAA changed Milton’s heading on Hurricanes.gov to plead with people to listen to evacuation orders.

    We’ll all be very happy to feel silly if this doesn’t go the way it looks like it’s going to go. But please for the love of humanity get out of the way of this thing.

    • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      My friend lives in Florida and has not, nor his words “will ever” evacuate for a “stupid hurricane.” I’ll give you one guess who he’s voting for.

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      6 months ago

      I’ve lived in the Tampa Bay area my entire life, never evacuated before, and I left last night. Fuck Milton. Not worth riding this one out.

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      6 months ago

      I was listening to a live stream with a couple meteorologists explaining everything. they were fairly jovial and laid back seeming guys but at one point, one of them got a deadly serious tone to his voice and started talking about how this one can’t be rode out, can’t be survived.

    • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Why evacuate? Just write your name, DoB, and SSN on our arms and legs, and use a waterproof sharpie for that. Just in case, you know?

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      6 months ago

      A lot of whats about to happen to Florida in the coming months will be self inflicted because of their politics.

  • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I’m gonna tell myself that this is finally bad enough to spur widespread action on global warming as a way of feeling better about it and you can all preemptively shut up with your reality checks.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Tbh I’ve learned a lot about how thermal energy affects these storms and I gotta say, the only people who are gonna be living in Florida 20 years from now are people who live in submarines.

      We ought to be executing oil company CEOs for treason.

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    6 months ago

    What. The. Fuck.

    I’m watching the live stream from WFLA, which is a St. Petersburg station. He’s a photo of a bridge leaving the area right now (just after noon on Tuesday Florida time.)

    Either most people with cars have evacuated or there are a lot of people who may learn the last lesson of their lives. I hope the former.

    Also, the eye apparently will pass right over Cape Canaveral.

  • SmokumJoe@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    You would think religious people would say this is a sign. They probably do but apply it in the wrong direction.

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      6 months ago

      A lot of overlap from the flooding, more wind from Milton. I know a few people who have had to gut their houses already from Helene and expect it to flood again this week.