HurricaneTracker.ai

    2026 Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30.

    Miami and Fort Lauderdale Hurricane Tracker

    South Florida is the most hurricane-exposed urban area in the country and it has been lucky for a long time. Hurricane Andrew on August 24, 1992 is the benchmark: a Category 5 with 165 mph winds that flattened Homestead and Florida City, destroyed 63,000 homes, and produced the building code the whole state now uses. Since then the region has taken hits from Hurricane Wilma in 2005, which came from the Gulf side and knocked out power to 3 million, and Hurricane Irma in 2017, which made landfall at Cudjoe Key as a Category 4 and again at Marco Island, flooded Brickell, and triggered the largest evacuation in Florida history.

    The Keys are the exception to the luck: one road out, the Overseas Highway, and Irma destroyed or damaged two-thirds of the homes from Cudjoe to Marathon. Miami-Dade and Broward evacuate by storm surge planning zone, not by category, and the region's real vulnerabilities are surge into Biscayne Bay and the Intracoastal, flooding in low neighborhoods like Brickell, Shorecrest, and Las Olas, and the 6 million people who would need to leave on four north-south highways.

    Radar

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    Composite radar, South Florida and the Keys.

    Evacuation zones for South Florida

    Miami-Dade uses Storm Surge Planning Zones A through E, with A covering the coast and barrier islands and ordered out first. Broward uses Zones A, B, and C. Palm Beach uses Zones A through E. Monroe County evacuates the Keys in phases by mile marker, visitors first, because the Overseas Highway is the only way out. Orders come from each county's emergency management agency and are issued zone by zone as a storm approaches.

    Local emergency management, shelters and outages

    Each county's emergency management office posts evacuation orders, shelter openings, and re-entry information. The local National Weather Service forecast office issues watches and warnings, and the FPL Power Tracker shows real-time power status across the region.

    What South Florida should watch for

    The angle of approach matters more than the category. A storm coming from the east or southeast pushes surge into Biscayne Bay and up the Intracoastal, flooding the bay-front neighborhoods first. A storm crossing from the Gulf side, as Wilma did in 2005, is a wind and outage event for the whole peninsula rather than a surge event for the coast.

    The Keys are ordered out 48 hours or more ahead of a storm because the Overseas Highway carries one lane each way for 110 miles and its bridges close at sustained winds around 40 mph. If you are in the Keys and a storm is forecast to pass nearby, leave when the visitor evacuation is ordered, not when the resident order comes, because the highway will be at a standstill by then.

    The neighborhoods that flood first are Brickell, Edgewater, and Shorecrest in Miami, the Las Olas isles and Hollywood Beach in Broward, and Palm Beach island. If you live or stay in any of these, treat a Zone A order as non-negotiable, and do not wait for the water to start rising before you leave.

    High-rise residents who are not in an ordered zone should shelter below the 10th floor, because wind speed rises with height and the worst glass damage happens on the upper floors. Expect elevators to stop when power fails and water pressure to drop on the upper floors. FPL's grid hardening since Irma has cut restoration times, but a major hurricane still means a week or more without power for the hardest-hit areas, so stock water, food, and fuel for at least seven days.

    Frequently asked questions

    Is Miami in an evacuation zone?

    The coast, the barrier islands, and everything east of Biscayne Boulevard and along Biscayne Bay is in Zone A or B, the first zones ordered out. Zones are assigned by storm-surge risk, not by hurricane category or flood insurance zone, so a home that has never flooded can still be in Zone A. Look up your exact address with the Miami-Dade zone finder above before a storm threatens, because evacuation orders come by zone letter, not by city.

    Where are the hurricane shelters in Miami?

    Miami-Dade opens evacuation centers on a storm-by-storm basis and shows only the open ones in its online finder, so check it when a storm threatens rather than relying on a standing list. Broward and Palm Beach publish standing shelter lists on the pages above. Shelters are generally inland and outside the ordered evacuation zones, and pet-friendly shelters have limited space that requires advance registration and proof of vaccinations.

    When was the last hurricane to hit Miami?

    Hurricane Irma on September 10, 2017 made landfall at Cudjoe Key as a Category 4 and again at Marco Island, passing west of Miami and still flooding Brickell and triggering the largest evacuation in Florida history. No storm made landfall in Florida in 2025. Hurricane Andrew in August 1992, a Category 5 with 165 mph winds that flattened Homestead and Florida City, remains the benchmark storm for the region and the reason Florida has the building code it does.

    Do I need to evacuate from a high-rise in Miami?

    Only if your building is in an ordered evacuation zone. If you are outside the ordered zone, shelter in place but move below the 10th floor, because wind speed rises with height and the worst glass damage happens on the upper floors. Expect elevators to stop when power fails and water pressure to drop on the upper floors, so fill your bathtub and stock water before the storm arrives.

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