Hurricane Milton Now Category 5 Again: What We Know a Day Before Landfall

‘This is the ocean coming into your living room. This is fast-rising water with a lot of pressure behind it ,’ a Pinellas County official warned.

Hurricane Milton's wind speed forecast as updated by the National Hurricane Center on Oct. 8, 2024. US National Hurricane Center

Hurricane Milton re-strengthened to a Category 5 storm with 165 mph winds on Tuesday afternoon, with federal forecasters warning the storm will likely double in size before it hits Florida’s Gulf Coast.

The storm is forecast to make landfall near Tampa on Wednesday evening and could become the worst storm to hit the area in about 100 years, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned earlier this week.