AccuWeather's Bernie Rayno and Jon Porter assess the total damage and economic loss left behind by Hurricane Milton then look ahead to tropical concerns arising in the Caribbean for the next threat.

Florida

Hurricane Milton has made landfall as a Category Three system, causing tornadoes and widespread damage across parts of Florida.

Hurricane Milton

AccuWeather meteorologists Bernie Rayno and Jon Porter have assessed the extensive damage and economic loss brought about by Hurricane Milton in Florida. Preliminary estimates place the total damage and economic loss between $160 billion to $180 billion, making Milton one of Florida's most destructive hurricanes. This estimate is slightly lower than that of Ian, a major storm known for its catastrophic storm surge across Florida. While Milton did not result in a flood disaster in southern Appalachians like Helene, it caused significant wind and storm surge damage coupled with heavy flooding rainfall.

The combined economic loss from Hurricanes Helene and Milton approaches nearly half a trillion dollars, which is about two percent of the United States' gross domestic product. These significant losses could potentially impact the predicted U.S. GDP growth of one to two percent this year. AccuWeather remains vigilant, as the rapid escalation of hurricane damage this season has been a cause for concern.

In the Caribbean, meteorologists are currently observing conditions that may give rise to a new tropical storm threat. With limited wind shear and favorable conditions anticipated, there is potential for development. Two potential paths for any future tropical development are being monitored – one that might lead to Central America and another that could see movement into the Gulf of Mexico, possibly heading toward Florida. AccuWeather emphasizes the importance of staying informed and prepared, as the situation is evolving and could swiftly lead to a landfall.



Assessing Milton's devastation; Next tropical concern brewing

some of the estimates and yesterday we came up with an estimate from the damage from Milton. We did and all of these things think about all these personal tragedies that the survivor spoke about in that sound clip there so many people have lost so much and we're thinking about all the people that have been impacted in that very profound way beyond all those personal impacts when you sum up the economic damage we're talking about a preliminary estimate of 160 to 180 billion dollars in total damage and economic loss this is another huge number with one of Florida's most destructive hurricanes. Yeah take a look at the billion dollars disasters here so that puts Milton in conversation with Helene, Ian and Deputy as well. Yeah it's not good company you know here at Activa we always like to put we always like to put the individual storms into context so you can see how it compares to other disasters and you see Milton's 160 to 180 billion dollars in total damage and economic loss a bit underneath Ian of course which is a major storm with that catastrophic storm surge across Florida and then of course Helene 225 and 250 billion dollars a lot of this there was not a flood disaster in the southern Appalachians as there was with Helene but still lots of wind damage lots of storm surge damage and all that heavy flooding rainfall means that Milton goes down in the record books as yet another major hurricane hit and damage producer in Florida. You know when the season before this season started we were so concerned about hurricanes that would have the ability to be a strengthening hurricanes as they went toward the coast and we've seen that with a number of hurricanes this year and it's it's getting awfully expensive the damage we've seen this year. It is escalating fast and we were concerned about that with this season and take a look at what's just happened in the last three weeks Helene and Milton combined add up billion dollars in total damage economic loss that's almost half a trillion or another way to look at that is two percent of the United States gross domestic product you know there are some economists that are forecasting some growth of about one or two percent in U.S. GDP this year because of a lot of these losses that may not happen or it may be challenged. Here quickly and we we don't have a lot of time so we'll go over this quickly here but already we're sounding the alarm listen you know me I'm an avid person on ex formally twitter I've already getting tons of questions how in the world can you say this so early well there's our moderate risk John let's go to what I always refer to as basic meteorology. That's right an area of high pressure building high pressure delivering cool air here into the eastern part of the United States that's going to flood in but look underneath that area of high pressure that's pattern recognition for trouble. Yeah because what happens is you'll get a frontal boundary down there you'll probably get some showers and thunderstorms and then the easterly flow tries to bring in tropical moisture in so the question is is okay you have showers and thunderstorms there doesn't mean you're going to get development the one limiting factor this time of the year is wind shear right. Sure is and so we typically look at where those unfavorable winds changing with in the atmosphere might be and we see none of it limited wind shear so all those things put together that's pattern recognition in our minds that goes this is an area that we're going to have to watch for tropical storm development. Now the question is John all right you get tropical development where is it going to go now obviously it's very early in the game and certainly where it develops will make a a big impact on where it's going because it's a large area it could be in the northwest caribbean it could be down in the southwest caribbean we're also tracking a dip in the jet stream across the Rockies but there are some things that we can let people know about now. Right looks like there'll be two potential paths something that forms further south is more likely to go into central america something that forms further in the northwest caribbean sea is likely to get drawn up into the gulf of mexico and odds would favor that heading back toward florida right that type of situation because it looks like there's going to be protection for much of the central and western gulf coast and climatology when you look at storms in october where do they go they don't go in the central gulf coast they don't go to texas they typically go toward florida so we're early in the game here but like we did with helene like we did with milton we want to give people extra time because once this develops landfall could be quick

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Hurricane Milton