Tampa is still in the process of recovering from a record-breaking storm surge after it was grazed by Hurricane Helene just two weeks earlier.

As of 5 p.m. ET Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said Milton strengthened back to a Category 5 storm after being downgraded to a 4. Milton has sustained winds of 165 mph and the latest update shows an overnight landfall time of around 1 a.m. Thursday, near Tampa Bay.

It’s hard to find much of a forecast cause for optimism. Milton will combine a generational surge threat to west-central Florida with widespread wind impacts and flash flooding.

Forecasts suggest Hurricane Milton is likely to make landfall in the western part of the Florida peninsula, bringing rain, ocean surge and damaging winds.

The Category 5 Hurricane Milton was expected to grow larger on Tuesday as it threatened Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on its way to Florida, where more than a million people were ordered to evacuate from its path.

Hurricane Milton was still a powerful Category 4 Tuesday morning storm as it remained on track to make landfall on Florida's western coast by Wednesday night.

Not even two weeks after Hurricane Helene swamped the Florida coastline, Milton has strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane on a path toward the state

Hurricane Milton was barreling across the Gulf of Mexico as a powerful Category 4 storm on a path headed toward Tampa, Florida.

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor took to television with a dire warning for those staying behind in evacuation zones ahead of Hurricane Milton's landfall.