Map: Track Hurricane Milton's path, forecast and status ahead of the storm's landfall in Florida

Hurricane Milton is expected to continue to develop rapidly as it crosses warm water in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Milton has exploded into a monster storm as it soaks up its natural fuel, warm water, in the Gulf of Mexico.

The National Hurricane Center had warned that Milton was likely to strengthen into a major hurricane, defined by minimum sustained winds of 111 mph, and its status was confirmed at 8 a.m. Monday.

On Monday, the NHC said the storm had intensified into a "potentially catastrophic" Category 5. After shuffling back and forth between a Category 4 and 5 storm on Tuesday, it was downgraded again to a Category 4 Wednesday morning with sustained winds of up to 155 mph.

As of the 8 a.m. update from the NHC, it was about 250 miles southwest of Tampa, Florida, and was moving at 16 mph.

NBC News forecasters said that the storm could weaken back to Category 3 before it makes landfall Wednesday night on the west coast of Florida.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/map-hurricane-milton-path-forecast-status-track-rcna174203

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