A hurricane tracker has revealed the latest developments on storms ‘Nadine’ and Leslie that were brewing in the Atlantic before Milton reached Florida.
Nadine, a non-tropical area of low pressure system, formed just 650 miles off the state’s east coast earlier this week, raising fears that it could become a hurricane.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) announced Wednesday night that the The storm had subsided due to unfavorable environmental conditions.
Leslie, a tropical storm that formed in the Caribbean, had been upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane as it moves northeast, a similar track to Hurricane Kirk.
There is no threat to land at this time and there are no coastal warnings or alerts in force for Leslie.
Milton made landfall Wednesday night, flooding entire streets, destroying homes and leaving millions of people without power as search and rescue teams battle the elements to save victims.
The Category 3 storm has now returned to the sea, where it will move east towards the Atlantic.
But forecasters were also keeping an eye on two other storms: potential Tropical Storm Nadine and Hurricane Leslie.
Weather maps listed Nadine as Invest 93L as experts monitored the system.
The potential tropical storm was labeled ‘invert’ because it is a weather system that is being monitored for possible tropical cyclone development.
And the ‘L’ indicated that it was a low pressure system.
The NHC reported a small chance of 93L becoming Nadine over the next few days while traveling just 15 miles per hour off the Florida coast.
“Some additional strengthening is likely today and tonight, followed by weakening early next week,” the NHC shared in a statement.
But the agency announced last night that ‘Nadine’ was no more.
Alex DaSilva, lead hurricane forecaster for AccuWeather, said news week: ‘There were many hostile winds south of Bermuda and the storm broke up.
‘That’s why it could never become an organized tropical system.
Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday night, but has since moved east toward the Atlantic.
‘Perhaps Milton could have imposed some additional wind shear.
“Wind shear prevented it from becoming an organized tropical system.”
Leslie is moving in the Zaragoza Sea with sustained winds of 90 miles per hour.
The hurricane is moving west-northwest at seven miles per hour and models show it could turn northeast on Friday and head east-northeast over the weekend.
Floridians are now dealing with the aftermath of the deadly storm, with more than three million homes and businesses without power and the first casualties reported before it made landfall.
The NHC called the Category 3 hurricane “dangerous” and “catastrophic” after it reached sustained winds of 160 miles per hour when it made landfall Wednesday night.
Communities across the state were warned to evacuate as the western coast of the Southern Peninsula was expected to be devastated with at least 117 tornado warnings ravaging the area, with dozens reported to have materialized.
Leslie is currently a Category 1 hurricane moving northeast. The storm is not expected to make landfall
The full extent of the damage caused by Milton is still unknown, but reports and photographs show extensive devastation, including yachts, sailboats, and other watercraft washed ashore, downed power lines, and homes turned into rubble.
“We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses,” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
“We have more to do, but we will definitely get through this.”
Milton struck just two weeks after Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida before moving inland and impacting North Carolina.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has forecast up to 25 named storms for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.
Milton is the 13th named storm of the 2024 season, which has so far seen four tropical storms and nine hurricanes.