Hurricane Milton’s cone of uncertainty as of 8 p.m. EDT on Oct. 8, 2024. Credit: National Hurricane Center
On Monday night, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor left CNN’s Kaitlan Collins stunned after telling the network that “If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re going to die.”

Almost a full day later, Tampa’s most-trusted weatherman, Denis Phillips is reminding viewers that despite a slightly southern wobble, Hurricane Milton is a beast. It remains the most dangerous storm Tampa Bay has faced in more than a century.

“DO NOT take a subtle change to track as a lower threat to our area,” he wrote on Tuesday evening ahead of another edition of his “Denis Phillips Live” stream.

Tuesday’s 4 p.m. update from the National Hurricane Center put Milton back at Category 5 with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph. The storm was about 480 miles southwest of Tampa and moving east-northeast at 9 mph.

The entire Tampa Bay area remains under a Hurricane Warning, and the NHC still expects Milton to make landfall on Wednesday night with Hurricane-force winds extending 30 miles from the center. Tropical-storm-force winds could arrive as early as midday Wednesday.

Phillips expects hurricane force winds to arrive in Tampa Bay around midnight between Wednesday and Thursday, with widespread power outages almost certain.

HIllsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties have all issued mandatory evacuations in zones A, B, and C. Anyone living in mobile and manufactured homes has also been ordered to evacuate. Free buses ran for much of the day on Tuesday, but stopped operating this evening.

The state has partnered with Uber to help Floridians get free rides to local shelters. All you have to do to get a free ride is open the Uber app, navigate to the wallet by accessing account settings and adding the promo code “MILTONRELIEF”.

Storm surge in Tampa Bay is still expected to be between 10-15 feet, according to the NHC.

More wobble in Hurricane Milton’s track is expected, but as of 8 p.m. the Coastal Emergency Risks Assessment storm surge chart put the track cutting across Longboat Key and Bradenton, with the highest storm surge between Bradenton Beach and Siesta Key.

While the new track lowers the chance of catastrophic surge in the Bay area, according to Phillips, it does not eliminate it.

“Don’t lower your guard if you live on the water,” he added. “There will STILL be a significant surge regardless of how this track plays out!!”

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This article appears in Oct 3-9, 2024.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...