Hurricane Milton timeline: Where and when did it make landfall in Florida?

Hurricane Milton has made landfall in the US state of Florida, where it is expected to lash communities with devastating winds and a dangerous storm surge.

Milton made landfall as an intense Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening near the city of Siesta Key on Florida’s west coast, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported.

The storm’s maximum sustained winds at landfall were registered at 195 kilometres per hour (120 miles per hour), the NHC said.

The hurricane is hitting Florida less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene battered the state, leaving a trail of destruction in its path.

Here’s what we know about Hurricane Milton and its potential impact:

What is Hurricane Milton?

Hurricane Milton is an intense tropical storm that has already affected the Yucatan Peninsula as it moved through the Gulf of Mexico.

In Yucatan, images showed coastal flooding, while strong winds brought down trees, causing power outages, but Governor Joaquin Diaz said that most of the reported damage had been minor.

Milton marks the ninth hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. On average, the Atlantic basin experiences about seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes each year.

This is the second Category 5 hurricane of the season, following Hurricane Beryl, the first storm of the 2024 Atlantic season.

Fed by warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Milton became the third-fastest intensifying storm on record in the Atlantic Ocean, the NHC said on Monday, as it surged from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in less than 24 hours.

Authorities use the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale to classify storms. The scale divides hurricanes into five categories based on their sustained wind speeds.

The highest is Category 5, which means a storm that has a sustained wind speed of 253km/h (157mph) or higher. Category 5 storms usually mean “catastrophic damage”, according to the NHC.

How has Milton progressed? When and where did it hit Florida?

In anticipation of the hurricane, Florida declared a state of emergency and issued evacuation orders, resulting in one of the largest evacuation efforts in the state’s history.

As of Tuesday, about 5.9 million people were under mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders, including people in 11 Florida counties.

Here is how the storm has progressed as it neared Florida:

Tuesday, 5:00 EDT (09:00 GMT)

On Tuesday morning, Hurricane Milton was across the northern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

According to the NHC, while Milton was in Mexico “damaging hurricane-force winds and a life-threatening storm surge with destructive waves [were] expected”.

The storm was moving at 19km/h (12mph) over the warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico and had maximum sustained winds of 250km/h (155mph), the NHC said.

Wednesday, 02:00 EDT (06:00 GMT)

On Wednesday morning, Milton was northeast of the Yucatan Peninsula and northwest of Cuba.

Authorities in Cuba have announced that ocean surges and coastal flooding are expected to affect Havana on Wednesday, including the city’s iconic seafront boulevard.