Updates on the storm’s path through Fla.
Hurricane Milton is forecast to make landfall overnight Wednesday along Florida’s Gulf Coast — though precisely when and where it will strike remains uncertain.
The potent Category 4 storm has picked up speed on Wednesday, moving northeast at 17 mph — or about double the speed it was moving at on Tuesday, Fox Weather meteorologist Stephanie van Oppen told The Post.
You can track the path of Hurricane Milton live here.
Key: MH — major hurricane; HU — hurricane; TS – tropical storm; STS — subtropical storm
“Right now there’s still a lot of uncertainty of where exactly it might make landfall, but most models are looking like it might be just south of Tampa, near Bradenton, maybe Sarasota area, which would bring the worst storm surge to just south of those regions,” van Oppen said.
“In that scenario, Tampa might not see the worst storm surge, but they would definitely see very strong winds from the eye wall of the storm as it moves onshore overnight,” she added.
While the storm has shifted south over the past 24 hours — making Sarasota the most target for landfall — it’s still “very possible” Milton will move north at the last minute in the next 12 hours before it makes contact.
Such a path change would but the 3.3 million Tampa Bay area residents at much greater risk.
“Right now, I would say Sarasota is the most likely point that we might see landfall,” van Oppen said.
“But that should not put anyone in Tampa at ease, because they’re still going to see very heavy rain and damaging winds, even if they are spared from the most extreme storm surge.”
Follow the latest from The Post on Hurricane Milton:
Current projections show the storm reaching land sometime between midnight and 2 a.m., van Oppen said.
The most recent spaghetti models, or long-range forecast models showcasing multiple possible outcomes, show it could hit anywhere on a 60-mile stretch along the coastline between Tampa and North Port — which is north of Fort Myers.
Van Oppen said Fox Weather forecasters had “medium confidence” in the current predictions — meaning Milton’s path may dramatically shift over the next 12 hours.
While the Category 4 storm is projected to land as a slightly weaker major hurricane, meteorologists predict it still may be one of the most destructive storms to date, bringing flash floods, devastating winds and up to 15 feet of storm surges in some regions.
“Since storm surge forecasts are highly sensitive to the exact track, this means that… storm surge heights across the Tampa Bay region and south may vary widely,” the National Hurricane Center warned on Wednesday.
“However, the risk of devastating storm surge still exists across much of the west-central and southwest coast of Florida.”