Joe Biden has warned that Hurricane Milton could be one of the worst storms to hit Florida in a century as people race to leave the area.
The expanding hurricane is currently churning toward Florida's battered Gulf Coast.
Eleven Florida counties, home to about 5.9 million people, were under mandatory evacuation orders as of Tuesday afternoon. Officials are warning residents not to bank on the storm weakening.
Mr Biden said: “It could be one of the worst storms in 100 years to hit Florida.
“My priority is to increase the size and presence of our effort.”
It is expected to hit land on the west coast of Florida late Wednesday as a Category 3 storm, which have winds of 111-129 mph (180-210 kph) – but forecasters have warned the category could rise quickly. Florida is five hours behind the UK.
A direct hit on the bay would be the first since 1921, when the now-sprawling Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater area was a relative backwater.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis said: “We must be prepared for a major, major impact to the west coast of Florida.”
As of Wednesday morning in the US, the storm was about 210 miles south-west of Tampa and moving north-east at 16mph.
Milton, which exploded on Monday into one of the most intense Atlantic hurricanes on record, was forecast to make landfall late on Wednesday, threatening a stretch of Florida's densely populated west coast that is still reeling from the devastating Hurricane Helene fewer than two weeks ago.
But how are hurricanes named and can we expect an increasing number in the future? Here is what you need to know.
How are hurricanes named and why?
Tropical cyclones are given names to make it easier to communicate between meteorologists and the public. It is believed, if they are made more personal, the public will listen to warnings more closely.
The Met Office says the idea of names for storms were first used widely in World War II and their use spread. In most regions, pre-determined alphabetic lists of alternating male and female names are used.
The West tends to use names of people to personalise the storm but this is not the case worldwide.
In the western North Pacific and North Indian oceans, the majority of names used are not personal names. Instead, the weather phenomena are named after objects – such as flowers, animals, birds, trees or food.
Some meteorological organisations cycle through a set number of lists starting at "A" each year, while others continuously cycle through names without reverting to "A" each year, and some start a new list each year. In the areas with cyclical lists, a name will be retired if the cyclone bearing it was particularly notorious and caused loss of life.
What are the North Atlantic hurricane names?
For 2024, the names for hurricanes across the North Atlantic were:
- Alberto
- Beryl
- Chris
- Debby
- Ernesto
- Francine
- Gordon
- Helene
- Isaac
- Joyce
- Kirk
- Leslie
- Milton
- Nadine
- Oscar
- Patty
- Rafael
- Sara
- Tony
- Valerie
- William
What are the UK storm names for 2024 and 2025?
The UK started naming storms in 2015 and release a new list of names each September. The list runs from early September to late August the following year, to coincide with the start of autumn and the end of summer, when we see the likelihood of low-pressure systems and the potential for named storms increase.
For 2024/25, the storm names are:
- Ashley
- Bert
- Conall
- Darragh
- Éowyn
- Floris
- Gerben
- Hugo
- Izzy
- James
- Kayleigh
- Lewis
- Mavis
- Naoise
- Otje
- Poppy
- Rafi
- Sayuri
- Tilly
- Vivienne
- Wren
