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.)

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 month 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.

  • Lenny@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    We’re supposed to go to Tampa this weekend for a tattoo. In the grand scheme of things I know, we’ve got very little to worry about, but I am wondering if we should just cancel now, or if there’s a chance of Tampa being back online by Friday.

    • strawberrysocial@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      If it’s only for a tattoo, maybe post pone it? Are you driving there? Only asking cuz plane ticket cancellation vs driving is different cost wise if you can’t get a refund. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to call the place and ask them what they think is appropriate.

      • Lenny@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        We have flights and hotel booked. It’s my husband’s appointment, I’m just there to show him memes and distract him. He’s going to ask the guy today.

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
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    1 month 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?

  • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
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    1 month 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.

    • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 month ago

      I’m gonna tell myself that this is finally bad enough to spur widespread action on global warming

      I, too, want to believe that humans are capable for caring enough about themselves, each other, and their descendants in order to put in place measures to make the world better for everyone.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      1 month 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.

    • Saleh@feddit.org
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      1 month ago

      In Germany more than 200 people died in a severe flooding in 2021. Just 2 month prior the conservative party CDU removed flood protection laws in one of the states most affected. In one of the towns completely destroyed they were again voted strongest just a few months later.

    • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Why? If people die because they don’t fund fema and Florida governor don’t take calls from Harris, then they blame it in Biden’s America. The immigrants took all the funding for hurricanes, remember?

      Ugh, I hate so many things right now.

      • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Bullshit. Go read the FEMA website about the their funding, especially how the disaster relief and immigrant funding is completely separated. Furthermore, the $750.00 is a Serious Needs Assistance that helps people to buy food, baby formula and the basics.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        To be honest this Guarantees Florida goes Red this round when it was getting close to turning back to purple. Tampa and Orlando both vote Blue, and many people will get displaced. Mail will be lost, voting locations will be destroyed, and you can’t just show up to any polling place to vote. “Oh you moved across the state because your house is flooded, well you can vote 350 miles from where you are now, or you can vote by mail, we sent it to your mailbox that doesn’t exist anymore”

          • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 month ago

            Yarp, remember Florida took to long in 2000 to get the votes counted when Florida’s supreme Court was turned down by the U.S. supreme Court to allow time to do one final recount as things were off.

            They awarded all 25 Florida electorial votes to George Bush, and Gore stepped down to allow it to be a civil process.

            If it takes to long to count Desantis only needs one round of Votes to show they were ahead, and stall on placing electors using his election police he created at his side to help the U.S. supreme Court double down on their original ruling 24 years ago

            https://www.britannica.com/event/Bush-v-Gore

            The count showed Gore won the Vote, would have won the election. Without it, we may have never invaded Iraq.

            https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gore-comes-out-swinging-on-iraq/

            Since then, Florida has outgrown New York, going from 25 electoral votes to 30. The effects of Florida going 1 way or another is huge

  • SmokumJoe@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

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

  • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I saw some models basically saying how unpredictable this hurricane is to the point that forecasts are all over the map, from landfall as Cat 2 all the way up to it maintaining Cat 5. Most predictions think it will land as a strong Cat 3, but the variance is really high.