Across Central Florida residents are preparing for Hurricane Milton’s forecasted powerful wind and rain as it takes aim at Florida’s Gulf Coast with landfall set for midweek. The storm intensified into a Category 1 Hurricane with winds of 80 mph on Sunday afternoon but is expected to continue growing into what officials call a “life-threatening” Category 3 Hurricane.

Central Florida is seeing heavy rain on Sunday with more expected as Tropical Storm Milton looms in the Gulf of Mexico. The First Warning Weather team is calling for impact weather now through Tuesday as a stationary boundary and an area of low pressure southwest of Florida (not directly related to Milton) bring on and off rain these next few days.

Bob Gendron loads sandbags onto his truck, as they are distributed to Pinellas County residents before the expected arrival of Tropical Storm Milton, in Seminole, Florida, U.S. October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Octavio Jones (Reuters) - Florida on Sunday prepared for the state's largest evacuation since 2017 as Tropical Storm Milton intensified in the Gulf of Mexico on its path toward Florida's western coast,

Milton was expected to to become a hurricane late Sunday, with "steady and rapid strengthening" forecast over the next few days.

The National Hurricane Center says people across Florida should take notice: Milton is still just a tropical storm off Mexico, but it’s expected to intensify rapidly as it moves east across the Gulf and could be a major hurricane before it slams into the storm-ravaged Florida coast,

The state's top emergency management official Sunday said he's preparing for the largest evacuation since 2017's Hurricane Irma.

The storm is forecast to strengthen and bring the risk of life-threatening impacts to portions of Florida’s West Coast next week, with hurricane and storm-surge watches likely being in effect Sunday.