Life-threatening storm surges are expected to hit Florida's Gulf Coast this week with the arrival of Hurricane Milton, which was upgraded Monday afternoon into a Category 5 hurricane over the southern Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Milton is continuing to rapidly intensify before its expected landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast sometime Wednesday. The National Hurricane Center on Monday issued a hurricane watch for a stretch of the coastline including Tampa Bay, which remained roughly in the middle of the forecast cone.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Milton rapidly strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane Monday on a path toward Florida population centers including Tampa and Orlando, threatening a dangerous storm surge in Tampa Bay and setting the stage for potential mass evacuations less than two weeks after a catastrophic Hurricane Helene swamped the coastline.