Looks as if Mother Nature isn’t quite done with us for 2024. According to this morning’s weather forecasts, a new storm, currently identified as Tropical Depression 14, is located in the western waters of the Gulf of Mexico and is charting a path for the western coast of Florida. Winds are expected to intensify to 110 mph, eventually making this a Category 2 hurricane — potentially a Category 3 — which will then be named Hurricane Milton as is customary with the Weather Service.

While the exact path of the storm is still being closely watched, most of the spaghetti models used to predict its path are pointing towards a direct hit for the Tampa region, although nothing is certain for now. Based upon the speed of the storm, landfall is currently predicted for Wednesday morning, possibly around 8am. Unless things change, Tuesday will be the last day we will be making outbound shipments. Should the storm continue on its current path, it may be some time before we can resume mailing out orders and accept inbound shipments. I am writing this on Saturday at 1pm, so there’s still lots of time before we have a better idea of where this storm is headed, its strength and when it will strike.

Needless to say, we will monitor the progress of the storm over the next few days and update this blog post with the latest videos and imagery to keep people abreast of the situation. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers…