This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The End of the American Dream. 

This normally doesn’t happen.  During regular times, a hurricane is not supposed to go from Category 1 to Category 5 in less than a day.  At this moment, the roads out of the Tampa Bay area are absolutely jammed with vehicles as local residents attempt to get out of the path of the coming storm.  We literally just witnessed one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history, and now we are being told that Hurricane Milton could also be one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history.  So what in the world is going on here?

When I woke up on Monday morning, I was shocked to learn that Hurricane Milton had developed into a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 160 mph…

With winds of 160 mph, Milton has strengthened into the second Category 5 hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. Hurricane Beryl was the first storm to reach Category 5 status, doing so while it was traversing the Caribbean Sea in early July.

Milton was only a tropical storm on Sunday morning, but winds ramped up at a tremendous pace, spiking from 60 mph to 160 mph in just 28 hours. Additionally, an abundance of lighting has been flashing around the eye of Milton, an indication that it could still be strengthening.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

Just a few hours later, it was reported that Hurricane Milton had sustained winds of 175 mph…

Hurricane Milton has grown into an explosive Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 175 miles per hour, just two days after it developed in the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said Monday.

The hurricane was expanding and intensifying quickly Monday while tracking eastward over warm Gulf waters, with the latest growth happening much faster than forecasts suggested. Milton is expected to bring life-threatening conditions to parts of Florida, potentially as early as Tuesday.

Milton’s winds surged to 175 mph Monday, exceeding the threshold for Category 5 by a significant margin, according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center. The storm’s wind speeds more than doubled in the last 48 hours.

Of course, that wasn’t the peak either.

Just a little while ago, we were told that Hurricane Milton now had sustained winds of 180 mph…

Hurricane Milton strengthened to a Category 5 powerhouse Monday, driving sustained winds of 180 mph as it rolled across the Gulf of Mexico bound for what could be a devastating crash Wednesday along Florida’s already storm-battered western coast.

The National Hurricane Center said on its 5 p.m. advisory that Milton had reached those rare wind speeds, three hours after warning the hurricane had “explosively” intensified to 175 mph.

Come on now.

This isn’t supposed to happen.

Especially in October.

On Monday alone, the storm’s winds increased by 90 mph.

That is nuts!

One meteorologist was literally “on the verge of tears” as he discussed how powerful this storm was becoming…

Meteorology expert John Morales was on the verge of tears as he reported on what is to come for Florida live on NBC6.

‘It’s just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane. It has dropped– ‘ Morales said before pausing, visibly emotional.

‘It has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours,’ he continued. ‘I apologize. This is just horrific.’

A lot of people have been searching for “Category 6 hurricane” on Google, and USA Today published an entire article that speculated that a “hypothetical Category 6” could soon be added to the scale that we use to measure storms…

The rapidly developing hurricane that shows no signs of stopping won’t technically become a Category 6 because the category doesn’t exist at the moment. But it could soon reach the level of a hypothetical Category 6 experts have discussed and stir up arguments about whether the National Hurricane Center’s long-used scale for classifying hurricane wind speeds from Category 1 to 5 might need an overhaul.

This is a “once in a century” storm, but of course we just witnessed a “once in a century” storm.

It is so difficult to project exactly where large hurricanes will go, but right now forecasters are telling us that Hurricane Milton is heading straight toward the Tampa Bay area…

Milton is aiming directly for the Tampa Bay area—one of the state’s largest metro areas and home to more than 3 million people.

The Tampa Bay area has seen its fair share of hurricanes, but the storms typically do not strike the region directly from the west from the Gulf of Mexico, instead traveling north along the coast, as seen in the paths of Hurricane Ian in 2022.

AccuWeather’s chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter called Milton’s trajectory “unusual and extremely concerning.”

This is the kind of storm that can rip the roof right off a home and send trees hurtling through the air like missiles.

If Tampa takes a direct hit, the damage could be absolutely catastrophic.

According to one local meteorologist, this storm has the potential to be “the worst natural disaster in modern history for Florida”…

Hurricane Milton will be the worst disaster that Florida has ever seen, a longstanding weatherman has warned.

David Hartman, who works for WAPT in neighboring Mississippi, wrote: ‘Sadly, this is shaping up to the worst natural disaster in modern history for Florida.’

If you live in the Tampa Bay area, please leave.

At a press conference on Monday, one Florida official was literally begging people to evacuate…

Speaking at a press conference Monday alongside Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state’s director of emergency management, Kevin Guthrie, urged those in the Tampa Bay area to evacuate.

“I beg you. I implore you,” Guthrie said. “Drowning deaths due to storm surge are 100% preventable if you leave.”

This storm was not supposed to become this powerful.

So what happened?

There are some people that are placing the blame on our changing climate, but others are pointing out that man-made tools can cause apocalyptic weather events as well.

For example, earlier this year “cloud-seeding” was being blamed for producing “the heaviest rain ever recorded” in the United Arab Emirates…

The United Arab Emirates is today attempting to dry out after the heaviest rain ever recorded in the desert nation caused utter chaos – but there are suspicions the horrific flooding in Dubai and elsewhere may have been self-inflicted.

The typically scorching UAE heavily relies on cloud-seeding – a technique which sees aircraft fire salt flares into clouds to speed up condensation and induce rainfall – to provide its groundwater.

Flight-tracking data analysed by the Associated Press showed one aircraft affiliated with the UAE’s cloud-seeding efforts flew around the country on Sunday.

This technique has been used all over the world for decades, and in my opinion it should be completely banned.

According to CBS News, scientists have also been working on a way “to aim a high-energy laser beam into clouds to make it rain or trigger lightning”…

For many Americans who wished they could change the weather — whether it be in the Northeast during this past winter or in drought-stricken California — researchers may have found a way to aim a high-energy laser beam into clouds to make it rain or trigger lightning.

The existence of condensation, storms and lightning are all due to the presence of large amounts of static electricity in the clouds. Researchers from the University of Central Florida and the University of Arizona say that a laser beam could activate those large amounts of static electricity and create storms on demand.

By surrounding a beam with another beam that will act as an energy reservoir, the central beam will be sustained for greater distances than previously possible. The secondary beam will refuel and help to prevent the dissipation of the primary beam, which would break down quickly on its own.

Ultimately, there are lots of ways that the weather can be manipulated.

At this stage, we just don’t know what has caused Hurricane Milton to experience “explosive” growth.

But what we do know is that this storm is extremely dangerous, and it is anticipated that it will make landfall some time on Wednesday…

Time is running out for Floridians to prepare for Hurricane Milton, which is expected to make landfall as a major hurricane on Wednesday evening. Stores across central Florida, including those in Orlando, are already running out of bottled water and other essential supplies.

“We are preparing … for the largest evacuation that we have seen, most likely since 2017, Hurricane Irma,” Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said, according to The Associated Press. In addition to all of Fort Myers Beach, mandatory evacuations have been issued for all mobile and manufactured homes in areas near Tampa Bay. AccuWeather is predicting storm surge will reach 10 to 15 feet along a long area of the Florida coast surrounding Tampa Bay.

Needless to say, the Tampa Bay area is not the only area that is being threatened.

So far, a state of emergency has been imposed in 51 of Florida’s 67 counties by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis already placed 51 of the state’s 67 counties under a State of Emergency, and on Monday, President Joe Biden approved the state’s pre-landfall emergency declaration request, which now authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate all disaster relief efforts and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures.

A lot of people will attempt to ride this storm out.

Some will survive, and others will not.

We have never had two storms of such destructive power hit us so close together.

But what we are going through now is nothing compared to what is coming.

As I have been warning for years, historic natural disasters are going to be happening one after another.

We set a record for “billion-dollar disasters” last year, and I am sure that we will set another record this year.

This is our “new normal”, and things are only going to get even crazier from this point forward.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream, and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.