Riviera Maya, Q.R. — A disturbance that passed over the Yucatan Peninsula this week is now likely to hit Florida as a major hurricane. The National Hurricane Centre (NOAA) has upgraded that system to Tropical Storm Milton, a storm that is forecast to gain hurricane strength before making Florida landfall Wednesday.
On Saturday morning, the NOAA had posted an advisory for the Yucatan Peninsula due to its fast development. The NOAA expected the disturbance to develop into a tropical depression or storm later in the day, issuing an advisory for the Yucatan Peninsula next week due to a possible dip in its trajectory as it heads toward Florida.
However, as of early Saturday afternoon, the disturbance continued to become organized and gain strength. In the last 24 hours, the NOAA reported the system going from a 50 percent chance of development to, 70 then 90 and then a named storm hours later.
“Showers and thunderstorms associated with a broad area of low pressure located over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico are gradually becoming better organized.
“Development of this system is expected, and a tropical depression or storm is likely to form later today or on Sunday while it moves slowly eastward over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico.
“By early next week, the system is forecast to move faster eastward or northeastward across the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico where additional strengthening is likely. Interests on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, the Florida Peninsula, the Florida Keys, and the northwestern Bahamas should monitor the progress of this system.
“Regardless of development, locally heavy rains could occur over portions of Mexico during the next day or two, and over much of Florida late this weekend through the middle of next week,” the NOAA reported early Saturday.
Now, however, the NOAA says Tropical Storm Milton has a set trajectory for west Florida, bypassing the Yucatan Peninsula. It is expected to strengthen and be at or near major hurricane strength when it makes landfall along the west coast of the Florida Peninsula mid-week.
Last week, Mexico’s Servicio Meteorológico Nacional (SMN) had forecast “a new period of intense to torrential rains in the southeast and east of Mexico,” as that same system crossed over the Yucatan Peninsula into the Gulf of Mexico.
Areas from Cancun down into Riviera Maya were effected by that disturbance, now Milton, with bouts of heavy downpours as it passed.
