Hurricane Milton is lashing the east coast of the US and displacing millions of residents from their homes as they flee its path. It made landfall in Florida on Wednesday evening local time and the National Hurricane Centre has warned it brings a “life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds, and flooding rains”.
Available to comment:
Dr Liz Ritchie-Tyo, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Monash School of Earth, Atmosphere & Environment and Department of Civil Engineering
Contact details: +61 456 428 906 or [email protected]
- Tropical cyclones
- Tropical meteorology
- Extreme weather and climate impacts on societies
The following can be attributed to Dr Ritchie-Tyo:
“As Hurricane Milton makes landfall over the central Florida coast, this system highlights the importance of understanding all the potential impacts of any landfalling tropical cyclone and how these differ depending on your location. Hurricane Milton is an example of the combination of impacts that can occur in a major tropical cyclone – damaging winds and high coastal storm surge over a large region, and heavy rainfall. Depending on local conditions, the storm surge can cause high inundation well inland of the coast, and heavy rainfall can cause freshwater flooding in areas that don’t normally flood, and landslides and mudslides in regions of steep terrain.
“It is important that we understand the potential for these landfalling impacts across communities not just in the US, but globally. To address this question, Monash has been investigating how tropical cyclone behaviour has changed historically, and is projected to change under future climate scenarios in South East Asia, Australia and the South Pacific, to assess the risk and likelihood that any particular piece of coastline could be affected.
“Regardless of how our changing climate may affect the nature of tropical cyclones, Hurricane Milton is a reminder that major tropical cyclones with devastating impacts can make landfall anywhere along our tropical cyclone-prone coastlines. Being prepared for an event that might never happen costs far less than regretting a lack of preparedness afterwards.”
Professor Scott Tyo, Head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering
Contact details: +61 3 9903 4840 or [email protected]
Outside the US, many regions rely heavily on satellite data, which offers less detailed insights to accurately predict storms’ wind patterns and rainfall.
To address this gap, Monash engineers and atmospheric experts are working together to develop methods that make the most of satellite data.
Professor Tyo’s work is aimed at reconstructing a storm’s physical structure—such as wind speed, rain intensity, and overall dynamics—using satellite imagery.
His research focuses on using remote sensing and image data to analyse and better understand tropical cyclones. He has developed sophisticated techniques to estimate the intensity and structure of these storms from satellite imagery, which is crucial for accurate forecasting.
This could help bridge the gap in understanding and forecasting tropical cyclones in regions like the Caribbean, South East Asia or the Pacific Islands that lack direct observation tools.
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